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JAPAN 



JAPAN 

As Seen and Described 
by Famous Writers 



Edited and 'Translated by 

ESTHER SINGLETON 

Author of '* Turrets, Towers and Temples," 

"Great Pictures," and *'A Guide to the 

Opera," and translator of *' The Music 

Dramas of Richard Wagner. ' ' 



WITH NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 




>' 't' t I t' 'i '1 i-l' ■!'■). .;.i). ii j, ,;, ] ; \ i j. .|i|, i^..^. .{..i. ,^.,|. .f,;! j,,). ',;,,, ,^, 

Dodd, Mead and Company 
1904 



] 



Two C»pie8 Received 

MAR 31 1904 






Copyright, 1904, 
By DODD, mead AND COMPANY 



Published March, igo4 



**• • « 



• ^e € • * * 



PREFACE 

IN the following pages I have endeavoured to present 
a bird's eye view of Japan, as seen by travellers and 
recognized authorities who have given time and study 
to the arts, sciences, history, ethnography, manners, cus- 
toms and institutions of that country. Within the limits 
of a volume of this size, it is, of course, impossible to de- 
scribe Japan in detail ; in fact, that country is still a sealed 
book to the European and American with the exception of 
the circumscribed region around Tokio, Kioto and the 
Treaty Ports. I have tried, however, to give a general and 
comprehensive view of Japan and Japanese life by drawing 
on the records and impressions of those who have been 
allowed especial opportunities for examination and forming 
their own conclusions. 

Beginning with the description of the country, its phys- 
ical features, flora, fauna, etc., the writers whom I have 
laid under contribution next describe the Japanese race 
with ethnological details, and then proceed to treat of the 
history and religion of the land. The next division of the 
work is devoted to descriptions of special towns, the Inland 
Sea, mountains, highways, temples, shrines and places of 
popular resort. As these special descriptions give a clearer 
idea of Japanese life and thought than more general 

V 



vi PREFACE 

articles, more space has been devoted to this department of 
the work than any other. From the topography and special 
descriptions, we pass to the manners and customs of the 
nation, treating of the home and the special social obser- 
vances and amusements peculiar to Japan. After this, the 
arts and crafts of the Japanese are treated comprehensively 
by recognized authorities in the various branches ; and, in 
order to give the reader an idea of Japan as it now is, I 
have added a few recent statistics and an article on the dawn 
of New Japan. 

The extracts from Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan^ by 
Lafcadio Hearn, are used by permission of, and by special 
arrangement with, Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 
publishers of Mr. Hearn's works. 

E. S. 

New Tork^ March 20^ igo^. 



CONTENTS 

PART I 

THE COUNTRY AND THE RACE 

PAGE 

The Country . . . . , . , . i 

Louis Gonse 

Physical Features . . . . . . . .13 

A. H. Keane 

The Japanese Race . . . . . . .21 

Jean Jacques i.lisee Reclus 

PART II 

HISTORY AND RELIGION 

The History of Japan ....... 30 

Basil Hall Chamberlain 

Shinto and Buddhism . . . . , . . 44. 

Toshitaro Tamashita 

The Japanese Tori-i . . , . . . .54 

Samuel Tuke 

PART III 

PLACES AND MONUMENTS 

The Great Tokaido Road ...... 60 

Sir Edward J. Reed 
vii 



Vlll 

Tokio 



CONTENTS 



Frederic H. Balfour 

The Temple of Asakusa 

Judith Gautier 

The Temple of Hatchiman . 

Aime Humbert 

The Shiba Temple .... 

Christopher Dresser 
In Yokohama ..... 

Lafcadio Hearn 
Fuji-San ...... 

Sir Edwin Arnold 
The Temples of Nikko 

Pierre Loti 
The Ise Shrines ..... 

Isabella Bird Bishop 
The Dai-Butsu of Nara 

Sir Edward J, Reed 
Kioto ...... 

Pierre Loti 
The Mikado's Palace .... 

Pierre Loti 

The Inland Sea . 

• • . . 

Aime Humbert 
Impressions of Kobe .... 

Andre Bellessort 
Miyanoshita .... 

Sir Edwin Arnold 
In the Japanese Mountains 

Sir Edwin Arnold 



77 
82 
89 

97 
102 
no 
120 
131 

^Z7 
141 

' 149 
. 156 

164 

. 172 

. 182 



CONTENTS ix 

Ena-San and Misakatoge . . . . . .191 

Noel Buxton 

A Large Crater 201 

Prof. John Milne 

Enoshima . . . . . -. . . ,210 

Lafcadio Hearn 



PART IV 

MANNERS AND CUSTOMS 

Costume of the Gentlemen of Japan . . . .218 \y- 

Arthur Diosy 

Japanese Ladies ........ 227 

r. E. M. 

Japanese Children . . . . . . -234 

Mortimer Mempes 

The Geisha 239 

Mortimer Mempe^ 

The House and its Customs ...... 243 

Marcus B. Huish 

The Japanese Hearth . . . . . . .250 

Sir Edwin Arnold 

Gardens 257 

7. 7. Rein 

The Flowers of Japan ....... 263 

Josiah Conder 

The Tea-Ceremonies (Cha-no-yu) 'v • • • 282 

Augustus W. Franks 

Pilgrimages ........ 287 

Basil Hall Chamberlain 



X CONTENTS 

PART V 

ARTS AND CRAFTS 

Ornamental Arts . . . . . . . .291 

George Ashdown Audsley 

Decorative Arts ........ 297 

Sir Rutherford Alcock 

Architecture . . . . . . . . 305 

Christopher Dresser 

Painting . . . . . . , . .312 

William Anderson 

Pottery and Porcelain . . . . . , .316 

Augustus W. Franks 

Sculpture and Carving . . . . . . .324 

Marcus B. Huish 

Lacquer . .. . . . . , '331 

Ernest Hart 

Literature ......... 341 

W, G. Aston 

Theatre 34^ 

Mortimer Mempes 

PART VI 

MODERN JAPAN 
The Nev^r Japan 356 

Arthur Diosy 

Present Conditions ....... 364 

E. S. 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Yokohama ..... 

Falling Fog Cascade, Kirifurinotaki 

Harbour of Nagasaki 

Japanese Priests 

Tomb of Iyeyasu, Nikko 

Osaka Castle 

Shinto Temple, Kobe 

Dai-butsu, Ueno, Tokio 

ToRi-i, Nagasaki 

Street in Tokio 

BuDDHAS, ASAKUSA . 

Daiboudhs, Kamakura 
The Shiba Temple, Tokio 

A JiNRIKI-SHA . 

FujJ-SAN 

Temples of Nikko . 

Shogun's Bridge, Nikko 

Entrance to the Temple of Chion-in, Kioto 

Temple of Kiomizu, Kioto 

Mikado's Palace, Kioto . 

Kobe .... 

Japanese Children. By Mortimer Mempes 

Japanese Interior with arrangement of winter 

Gardens, Tokio ..... 

Gardens, Kogoshima . , . • 



y 



Frontispiece 


To face page 


2 ^ 




H'^ 




2.Z' 




32. 




40 




. 46- 




52/ 




. 56^ 




78 




88 




96 




100 




108 




116 




120^ 




130 




142 > 




148 




154 




164 




234 


WER 


3 244 




250 




262 • 



Xll 



ILLUSTRATIONS 



Viewing the Plum Blossoms 

On the Sumida River 

Wistaria Blossoms at Kameido 

Japanese Tea-Room 

Mother and Child. By Kenzan (1663-1743), in 
Kenzan-Imado Ware 

Gateway of the Shiba Temple, Tokio 

Pagoda at Asakusa .... 

Spectacle Bridge, Kioto . 

Kakemono by Hokusai, representing Ofuku throwing 
beans at a demon ; painted about I 800 

Vases of Owari Porcelain 

Carved Ivory Group, by Mei-Gioku Butsu, represent- 
ing THE famous archer TaMETOMO AND HIS SWORD- 
BEARER 

Four Lacquer Boxes ...... 

Panel from a screen, lacquer, with figure of a court 
lady and poetess of the Eleventh Century, in- 
crusted in ivory ; design by Yosai 

Tea House ... 

Temple Bell, Kioto ...... 



To face ^age 
268 



270 

274. 

284 

294 
306 

308 

310 

318 



326 

334 



344 
358 
368 



A 



THE COUNTRY 

LOUIS GONSE 

LL those who have set foot on Japanese soil agree 
in praising its natural beauties. In this respect, 
travellers' tales present such unanimity that we 
may consider Japan as one of the most favoured countries 
in the world. Beauty of sky, mildness of climate, variety 
of zone, and configuration to the land all contribute to its 
wealth. By its greatly lengthened form, like that of a bow, 
the concave side of which is turned towards the Asiatic 
continent, and by its extension from north-east to south- 
west, the Nippon archipelago covers very different latitudes 
and consequently lends itself to cultivations of the most 
opposite character. There are no fewer than 750 leagues 
between the northern extremity of the island of Yezo, which 
is on the forty-sixth parallel, to the extreme south of 
Kiushiu, which is on the thirtieth. While the northern 
regions are covered with snow the southern ones are vivified 
by an ardent sun. From the crossing, around Japan, of 
the great Polar current that comes down from the Sea of 
Okhotsk and the great tropical current that comes up from 
the equator towards the Isle of Formosa and flows along 
the east coasts before losing itself in the Pacific, it results 
that the difFerencie between the temperatures of the north 



2 JAPAN 

and south, between summer and winter, is more marked 
even than in Europe. At the same latitude, it is colder by 
five or six degrees in the north of Japan ; and the heat is 
more intense in the south. The medium climate of Yezo 
corresponds almost with that of Norway ; that of Kiushiu 
with that of Egypt. There is the same difference in the 
seasons. It must also be added that the east coasts have a 
milder and more humid climate than those on the west. 

Four islands, of much greater importance than the others, 
form the territory of the Empire of Japan properly speak- 
ing; Yezo, Hondo, the largest, which the Dutch named 
Nippon ; Shikok, the coasts of which form the Inland Sea, 
and Kiushiu. The area of the Empire of Japan, accord- 
ing to official statistics, is a little more than three-quarters 
the size of France ; and the population numbers about 
forty millions. Taking into account the small number of 
inhabitants contained by the northern and mountainous 
regions, this country must rank as one of the most densely 
populated on the face of the globe. The population of 
the three imperial cities is, — Tokio, 1,507,642 ; Kioto, 
351,461 ; Osaka, 1,311,909. Ten other towns have more 
than 100,000 inhabitants each. 

The extreme width of Japan, even in the latitude of 
Tokio, does not exceed 130 leagues. The extent of the 
coast line is enormous and may be set at ten times that of 
France. The shores are greatly indented, with deep bays ; 
and the islands with which they are dotted are almost in- 
finite in number, — no less than thirty-eight hundred of 




FALLING FOG CASCADE, KIRIFURINOTAKI. 



THE COUNTRY 3 

them have been counted. This geographical disposition, in 
combination with the presence of the ocean currents, re- 
sults for a great portion of the year in a very humid condi- 
tion of the atmosphere, from which vegetation gains an 
incomparable freshness. The almost tropical humidity of 
the spring and summer, and the relative dryness of the 
autumn and winter constitute the most striking character 
of the climate of Japan. Rain and snow are continually 
recurring in the compositions of the Japanese artists. 

The rainy season corresponds to our months of June and 
July. The temperature rises rapidly with the arrival of 
the rains, and transforms Japan into a veritable sewer. 
The summer, which follows, is short, hot and stormy. We 
can imagine the different actions exercised by such a state 
of atmosphere upon plants, animals and man. During these 
months, the population is attacked by a general anemia. 
Everything softens in this warm humidity. Twice as much 
rain falls in Japan as in Western Europe ; at Tokio (Yedo), 
the meteorological observations show a rainfall of nearly 
sixty inches per annum. The bay of Tokio performs the 
office of a hole to engulf the clouds brought by the south 
winds. The paddy-fields thrive wonderfully in the prov- 
ince of Musachi and form stretches of verdure for which 
the eye can find no limit. The skies in this region pour 
down such masses of water that the waters of the sea are 
far less salt here than elsewhere. This enervating return 
of warm rain is a real scourge to public health ; it is the 
sole complaint that visitors have to make. But it is really 



4 JAPAN 

serious, and to its influence must be attributed the frail 
constitution of the Japanese, especially in the leisured 
classes, their premature old age, and the relatively short life 
among the dwellers in the plains. 

The autumn and winter are the dry seasons. The 
autumn particularly is the loveliest part of the year. Dur- 
ing the months of October, November and December, the 
sky is of exquisite purity, the colours in the landscape 
glow with marvellous brilliancy, and the air is light and 
full of tonic. Those who visit Japan in these privileged 
days carry away with them an image of ineffaceable de- 
light. Freed from the excessive influence of the spring, 
the plants, like the men, stand up and seem to take strength 
from the well-being of Nature. The flowers of spring are 
succeeded by a still richer display ; this is the time when 
the denticulated leaf of the moumidji illumines the landscape 
with its purple hues. 

The surface of Japan is very mountainous and of an 
essentially volcanic formation. The features of the land 
and shores give to the landscapes an extraordinary variety 
and an almost tortuous aspect which is very happily softened 
by a luxuriant vegetation. A i^^ of the volcanoes that are 
scattered over the surface of the Japanese archipelago are 
still in activity. The most remarkable of all, on account 
of its outline, the beauty of its form, and its isolated situa- 
tion, is the celebrated Fusiyama, the snowy mass of which 
is so majestically enthroned on the horizon of Yedo ; — the 
poetical Fusi, sung by all t' i poets and reproduced by all 



THE COUNTRY 5 

the artists of the capital. The afFection of every good 
Japanese for this admirable mountain, the highest in Japan, 
is well known. Like Etna, with which it presents singular 
analogies, Fusi has no rival. It reigns over Japan as Etna 
does over Sicily. 

Warm springs are abundant, and the vegetative energy 
indicates that the period of volcanic upheavals is not yet 
very remote. The soil is wonderfully fertile almost every- 
where. 

Cascades, streamlets, bridges, mills and miniature lakes 
are the necessary accompaniment of every Japanese land- 
scape. 

The chains of mountains that accentuate Japan are ac- 
companied by innumerable valleys, and even by immense 
plains, such as that of Yedo, in which the Japanese peasant 
finds a generous soil from which he can demand everything. 

Japanese cultivation, although greatly laboured, is yet 
somewhat restricted ; a small number of vegetables, among 
which are egg-plants, roots and potatoes ; watermelons 
figure in the first rank ; a few species of fruit-trees, mul- 
berries, bamboos, cotton trees, maize, hemp, tobacco, 
indigo, tea and rice, particularly rice, which, with fish, is 
the dominant, not to say exclusive, food of Japan. Gar- 
dening, by which I mean the cultivation of ornamental 
plants and flowers, is, on the other hand, extremely devel- 
oped. The Japanese love flowers. The flowers have not 
much odour, but they attain magnificent development and 
glow with hues unknown to us in Europe. Among the 



6 JAPAN 

most extraordinary, we may mention the giant chrysanthe- 
mums and the rose nenuphars, the calyx of which some- 
times measures fifty centimetres in diameter. 

The Japanese flora and fauna are similar to our own ; 
many plants and animals are common to Europe and Japan. 
As for the flora, the number of families and genuses is 
greater than ours ; but the varieties are infinitely fewer. 
The fauna is poorer. 

The centre of Japan, principally in the low regions of the 
Tokaido, thanks to the development of cultivation, offers 
a remarkable mixture of the plants of the temperate and 
tropical zones. There may be seen the banana growing 
side by side with the mulberry, the orange with the apple, 
the cotton tree with the walnut and chestnut. The edible 
fruits seem almost all to be derived from importation from 
abroad at a historical period. The peach, cherry, plum 
and almond are not indigenous to Japan ; there they have 
less flavour than in Europe. Pears attain enormous size 
there; the apple is only a wild fruit; the vine, which 
thrives in many regions, is not yet used for making wine. 
The only fermented drink in use is sake or rice brandy 
which contains only a small proportion of alcohol. 

The forest vegetation is very remarkable. Trees attain 
colossal dimensions. The soil is shaded everywhere ; 
bushes, ligneous plants, creepers and tall grasses are 
mingled in a picturesque jumble. Roads, paths, cascades, 
peasants' houses, inns and temples seem to be drowned in 
the verdure. The most noteworthy of the plants peculiar 



THE COUNTRY 7 

to Japan are : — the Kiri (Paulonia imperiaUs\ the imperial 
tree, the flower of which united with that of the chrys- 
anthemum, symbolizes the power of the Mikado; the 
ume^ or wild plum, an angular tree, covered with thorns, 
but of most beautiful style, that grows everywhere and 
whose dazzling blooms are the messengers of spring ; the 
Sought (^Cryptomeria japonica) whose strange and strong 
forms have been often celebrated by European writers ; the 
Hinoki [Retinispora ohtusd) that affords the most prized wood 
for cabinet-making; the Foudzi (Wysteria sinensis) that 
wreathes the columns of the temples, covers the straw- 
thatched roofs of the huts, and figures so largely in the 
poetic imagination of the Japanese, as the emblem of youth 
and of the season of flowers ; the Biva^ the Kaki^ which 
is the fruit-tree par excellence of Japan ; and the peony 
i^Botan) which is its most beautiful flower. We may also 
mention the Rhus vernicifera^ the lacquer tree, and the 
Brussonetia papyrifera^ the paper tree. The olive is 
unknown. 

The flowers which the Japanese are most fond of culti- 
vating in their gardens are orchids, chrysanthemums, 
camelias, peonies, azaleas, magnolias, hibiscus, nenuphars, 
irises, poppies, volubilis, lilies, begonias, ferns and mosses, 
odd forms of which they particularly esteem. The cherry 
is cultivated not for its fruit but for its blossom which is 
much larger and more beautiful than that borne by our 
trees. The double cherry blossom is incomparably mag- 
nificent. 



8 JAPAN 

Neglecting the flowers that are known to have been in- 
troduced from China or Europe, Savatier has classified the 
flora of Japan in 2,743 species, grouped in 1,035 genuses 
and 154 families. The number of plants may be put at 
more than 3,000 j forty-four genuses have not yet been 
found outside the Japan archipelago. As to the southern 
flora of Yezo, it is entirely different and almost unknown. 
In the forests, the number and mixture of species are much 
greater than in other countries of the same latitude. The 
virgin forests of Japan, notwithstanding the breaches al- 
ready made in them by industry, are still among the finest 
in the world. Yezo is nothing but a vast virgin forest of 
which the wealth of timber fit for building purposes has 
scarcely been touched. 

If rice dominates in alimentary cultivation, the conif- 
erous and evergreens dominate in forest vegetation. The 
resinous species of Japan enjoy universal celebrity. The 
pines and wild plums {time) are the most beautiful orna- 
ments of this region. The whole of decorate art is to 
some extent borrowed from the ingenious, delicate and 
learned study of these most picturesque trees. The artists 
have also made wonderful use of the moumidji^ or American 
oak, the leaves of which assume a purplish red in Autumn 
and glow in great masses in the Japanese landscape ; also of 
the bamboo the elegant forms of which lend themselves so 
readily to their favourite combinations. After rice, the 
bamboo plays the chief part in Japanese life ; it seems as if 
the country could not subsist without the bamboo. 



THE COUNTRY 9 

It lends itself to the most multifarious uses and 
needs. 

After the cereals, the cultivation of the tea-shrub oc- 
cupies the first rank, without being so important or so per- 
fect as in China. Tea is the national drink. The shrubs 
are set out in the fields, or form hedges ; they thrive well 
everywhere and are very hardy. The best tea is harvested 
in the neighbourhood of Kioto ; as to fineness and delicacy, 
it is inferior in quality to the tea of China. 

Silk culture occupies the third place in the national 
economics. Japanese silk was already celebrated in Europe 
in the Sixteenth Century. With respect to suppleness 
of tissue and beauty of tone, it has no rival. Un- 
fortunately, this industry is in complete decadence, the 
quality of the best goods no longer appeals to foreign buy- 
ers to the same degree as formerly ; the Japanese now only 
think about producing as much as possible without caring 
to maintain their old superiority. As for the native con- 
sumption, it diminishes daily under the invasion of our 
linens and cottons. 

The fauna of Japan offers few remarkable peculiarities. 
Moreover, it is much poorer than the flora. Owing to the 
density of population and the development of cultivation, 
Japan has preserved very few wild animals. The carnivora 
are scarcely represented except by two species of bears, one 
of which lives almost exclusively in the isle of Yezo. The 
tiger exists only in some of the southern provinces, and the 
wolf has almost entirely disappeared. A species of wild 



lo JAPAN 

dog is also mentioned ; but the two wild animals that are 
common over the whole surface of the country are the fox 
[Kitsune)j and the badger {Tanuki)^ which constantly 
appear, in popular legend and to which the women's imagi- 
nation attributes a baleful power. The fox can assume the 
human form. By preference, he chooses that of a young 
and beautiful woman, in order to lead belated travellers 
astray. The credulity of the lower orders attributes the 
most malicious annoyances to him. It is certain that he 
devastates the poultry-yards and rice-fields, where at his ease 
he can visit during the night the little tabernacles of Inari, 
the god of rice. The Japanese custom of offering food to 
their divinities attracts Mr. Renard and furnishes him with 
excellent repasts. The astute animal is so closely identi- 
fied with the peaceable god of the fields that every little 
temple {^yaciro) is flanked by two foxes coarsely carved in 
stone or wood, which has led some European writers to be- 
lieve that the Japanese worship the fox under the name of 
Inari. For his part, the badger can metamorphose himself 
into inanimate objects and kitchen furniture and utensils. 
He is fond of the porridge pot. A very popular legend that 
has very often inspired the artists relates that one day a 
merchant bought a big porridge pot. Having been set on 
the fire, it put out a tail, four paws and a head, and then 
took to precipitate flight. 

The boar and monkey are rather common. Rodents 
swarm. The rat is the emblem of fortune. It is always 
represented with Daikoku, the god of wealth. Animals 



THE COUNTRY 1 1 

with prized furs abound in the island of Yezo; but the 
Japanese have scarcely begun to take advantage of the 
natural resources of that island. The rabbit and hare are 
very rare. A few years ago, rabbits imported from Europe 
commanded fabulous prices. 

All the domestic animals, except the dog, came from 
China. The ass is unknown. The ox is employed in 
field work ; but, until the arrival of the Europeans, the 
Japanese had not thought of using its flesh as food. The 
horse alone has any real importance in the normal life of 
the people. It is reserved for the saddle and pack, the 
drawing of all kinds of vehicles being confined to men. 
The sole indigenous equine race is that of the Satsouma 
ponies. They are small, fiery and difficult to manage. 
Their mane is short and bristling, and they are strong 
necked and have a long and flowing tail. 

The Japanese ride only entire horses. They have great 
veneration for the horses of great personages. On the 
death of a prince or a warrior, a talented artist is commis- 
sioned to paint the portrait of his favourite horse with a few 
rapid strokes. These little pictures, called yemas^ are 
piously preserved by the friends, or descendants of the de- 
ceased. At Nikko, people still visit the chapel erected to 
the battle-horse of Tokugawa lyeyasu. 

The ornithological and entomological wealth of Japan is 
very considerable. The various species of birds present 
much analogy with those of our temperate regions. The 
most richly represented are the ducks, wild geese, cranes, 



12 JAPAN 

herons, and generally all the long-legged birds. Pheasants 
and peacocks are reared in gardens, as with us. The gal- 
linacae offer superb types, and the Japanese cocks enjoy a 
well-deserved reputation. As for insects and butterflies, 
they abound throughout Japan. 

The marine fauna is no less numerous. The waters of 
Japan afford fishing innumerable resources which, it is 
true, have somewhat diminished in certain parts of the sea, 
but in many others have scarcely begun to be exploited. 
One may say that Japan is a nation of fish-eaters. Fish 
cooked, salted, smoked or dried is the basis of the food of 
the people, and the fish is of excellent quality. There are 
very few differences between the Japanese species and our 
own. In general, the principal difference is that they are 
much larger ; the crustaceans are more varied and abundant. 
There are crabs of gigantic size. Siebold, who studied the 
flora and fauna of Japan with great enthusiasm, mentions 
one species with long tentacles measuring no less than sixty 
inches. A sketch (natural size) of this species is preserved 
in the ethnological museum at Leyden. 

Among the reptiles, we must mention a very odd 
animal, and one very celebrated in Europe since a specimen 
was brought to one of the zoological establishments of 
Italy, — the giant salamander, Sieboldia maxima (in Japanese, 
Sanzio Ouvo)^ which is found in some of the central 
provinces and in the neighbourhood of Lake Biwa. 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 
Relief of the Land — Highlands — Volcanoes 

J. H, KEANE 

THE Japanese archipelago is "an advanced frontier 
of Asia " consisting for the most part of very old 
sedimentary rocks, deposited, like the mainland 
itself, in deep water in palaeozoic times, and upheaved, like 
so many other mountain systems by lateral pressure due to 
the gradual shrinkage of the earth's crust through secular 
cooling. Doubtless, extensive longitudinal fissures were 
left, through which igneous matter was ejected in later 
ages. But although most of the loftiest summits are extinct 
craters, volcanic agencies have on the whole played a rela- 
tively small part in the geological history of Japan. If the 
archipelago be compared, with the old geographers, to 
garlands of flowers, then the volcanoes may be likened to 
small pearls threaded among these garlands. 

The neighbouring Pacific waters are the deepest that have 
yet been anywhere sounded ; but they shoal somewhat grad- 
ually towards the east coast, while the incline is still more 
gentle in the comparatively shallow sea of Japan on the west 
side. Above these waters rise the Japanese uplands, which 
cover the greater part of the surface, and which, viewed as a 

13 



14 JAPAN 

single orographic system, are found to consist of a long 
series of folds running normally in the direction of the main 
axis of the Archipelago. But towards the central and 
widest part of Hondo, a great transversal cleft, Naumann's 
Fossa Magna^ marks off an area of profound disturbance be- 
tween the northern and southern sections of the system. 
For some distance north of this cross fissure, above which 
rises Fujiyama, culminating point of the Archipelago 
(12,425 feet), the folds curve round so as to run for the 
most part transversely to the insular trend, but resume the 
normal direction about thirty-eight degrees north latitude, 
between Sado Island and Sendai Bay. 

During its long life above the marine waters, the original 
structure of the Japanese highlands has been somewhat ob- 
literated by weathering, denudation, erosive action, me- 
chanical pressure, and igneous agencies. Nevertheless, 
these primitive zones — an outer towards the Pacific, a 
median, and an inner facing the mainland — may still be 
distinguished, and are somewhat clearly marked, especially 
in the southern section south of the Fossa Magna. Here, 
the outer zone traverses the islands of Kiushiu and Shi- 
koku, and the Kii and Akaishi districts of Hondo, rising to 
a height of over 7,700 feet in Shi-koku, and to about 
10,000 near the transverse fissure. Beyond this point, it is 
continued at intervals by the Quinto, Abukuma and Kita- 
kami mountain masses. 

In the south, the median zone is now represented by the 
innumerable rocky islets of the Inland Sea, a vast flooded 




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< 
2. 



o 
ca 

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PHYSICAL FEATURES 15 

depression disposed in the normal direction between the 
outer and inner zones. North of the Fossa Magna^ this 
basin is continued by a median range with crests 6,000 feet 
high, extending to Awomori Bay at the northern extremity 
of Hondo, and bearing numerous igneous cones. Both in 
the north and in the extreme south (Kiushiu), the median 
zone is the chief sphere of volcanic activity in the Ar- 
chipelago, and here are accumulated enormous masses of 
erupted rocks. 

Lastly, the inner zone, skirting the shores of the sea of 
Japan, is of a more fragmentary character, its most salient 
feature being isolated volcanoes rising above circular basins 
formed by abrupt depressions. Such are the Sanpei and 
Daisen basins in the south facing the Oki Islands, in the 
north those of Gassan, Chokai, Moriyoshi, and Iwaki, ex- 
tending from near the parallel of Sado Island to Sangar 
(Sugara) Strait, between Hondo and Yezo. 

In Yesso (Yezo) exploration has been greatly retarded by 
the absence of roads through the trackless forests covering 
the greater part of the interior. The whole surface is 
hilly and in parts mountainous, the highest peaks being 
Shribetsi in the south (7,874 feet) ; Unabetsu in the north- 
east (5,039) ; Ofuyu in the west coast (6,OOo) ; Ishikari 
(7,710) and Tokachi (8,200) near the centre. Both old 
and recent eruptive rocks occur, as in Hondo ; but sedi-> 
mentary formations seem to predominate, developing nu- 
merous ridges of moderate elevation. The narrow inter- 
vening valleys are watered by small streams, which do not 



i6 JAPAN 

converge in any large fluvial basins, but for the most part 
find their way in independent channels to the coast. 
These rivers teem with salmon, while the immense forests 
contain much valuable timber — oak, elm, walnut, birch and 
maple — which might be exported at a profit. Coal 
abounds, and the mines opened at Sorachi are now con- 
nected by a railway with the coast. Yezo has an area of 
86,880 square miles. 

In Hondo, the main axis towards the middle of the 
island recedes somewhat from the east coast, where is de- 
veloped an alluvial lowland district watered by numerous 
streams, and occupied by Tokio (Yedo), capital of the 
empire. But west and south of this district the hills attain 
their greatest elevation in Mounts Nantai (8,195 feet), As- 
ama (8,260), Haku (9,185), and the magnificent snow- 
capped cone of Fujiyama (12,400). The latter rises in 
solitary grandeur some seventy miles south-west of Tokio, 
and is visible in clear weather for a distance of nearly one 
hundred miles. It has been quiescent since the year 1707. 
But although the highest, Fujiyama is not the largest vol- 
cano in Japan. This honour is claimed by Asosan, in 
Kiushiu, twenty miles from Kumamoto, the crater of 
which is said by Milne to be twelve miles in diameter, and 
consequently larger than Mauna Loa, hitherto supposed to 
be the largest in the world. 

The Asama-yama occupies a somewhat central position 
to the north-west of Tokio. From its crater, 1,000 feet 
across, this volcano emits constant volumes of smoke and 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 17 

vapour, and from Its summit a magnificent prospect is com- 
manded of the surrounding country. 

Other superb cones are Chokai-san on the north-west 
coast of Hondo, and Tateyama, one of the most con- 
spicuous and loftly peaks (nearly 10,000 feet) of the 
Shinano Hida range, towards the northern extremity of the 
Fossa Magna. Like Fusiyama, near the southern extrem- 
ity, it is a famous place of pilgrimage; and both command 
magnificent prospects of the surrounding lands and seas. 
Except a few hot springs at the foot of the mountain, there 
are no traces of recent volcanic action on Chokai-san ; but 
on the western slope of Tateyama is the largest and most 
interesting solfatara in the Archipelago. " The Japanese 
call it Figoku, ' Hell,' and no place in the whole world could 
remind one more of the infernal regions. From hundreds 
of openings, steam is emitted with a shrill, hissing noise, 
and sulphurous vapours belch forth in large volumes. At 
the edge of the solfatara, I found some small mud volca- 
noes in regular action. In some of the openings grew 
graceful flower-like cups of a beautiful yellow colour, formed 
of minute and beautiful crystals of sulphur, one of which, 
was about six feet high " (Naumann). 

Although many of the volcanoes have been in eruption 
during the historic period, nearly all are now extinct, or at 
least quiescent. But in 1878, Naumann witnessed a 
tremendous outbreak on the island of Oshima at the en- 
trance of Tokio Bay. From a small cone springing from 
the floor of a huge circular crater, a column of fire was 



i8 JAPAN 

projected into the air to a height of i,ooo feet, while 
masses of molten lava streamed down the slopes. 

But if eruptions are rare, earthquakes are all the more 
frequent, one might almost say of daily occurrence, although 
seldom of a violent character. 

Since the opening of the country to foreign intercourse, 
however, two very destructive disturbances have been 
recorded, that of the Tokio district on 22d February, 1880, 
and the still more violent convulsions of the Mino and 
Owari providences which began on 28th October, 1891, 
and continued till the end of March, 1892, as many as 
2,588 shocks being felt at Gifu, and 1,495 at Nagoya. 
This event was felt over an area of 50,000 square miles, 
or sixty per cent, of the Japanese Archipelago, and in the 
central parts its effect was greatly to modify the topography 
of the country, rendering existing surveys quite useless in 
some districts. On the plain near Nagoya, the ground was 
riven with myriads of fissures, small mud volcanoes being 
thrown up along the Shonigawa River, where a bamboo 
grove slid sixty feet back, the trees remaining upright. 
Gifu was nearly ruined, and every house was overthrown 
in the continuous street, twenty miles long, running thence 
to Nagoya. Several other places shared the same fate, and 
even greater havoc was wrought in the hilly Mino district, 
traversed for forty miles by a new line of fault, where 
everything lying near the great throws of shale was des- 
troyed. The solid ground became for a time like a sea of 
waves, the destruction being complete in the epicentric 



PHYSICAL FEATURES 19 

district, 4,200 square miles in extent. Near Kimbara, in 
the Neo basin, the sides of the valley slid into the river, 
and in the upper reaches a great part of the mountain 
slopes glided down to the lowlands. One result of the 
earthquake was the formation of a huge fissure, which was 
traced for over forty miles through the Neo valley from 
Katabira to Fukui in Echizen, cutting across hills and 
paddy-fields, and raising the soft earth into a ridge, like the 
track of a gigantic mole. " The old Japanese idea that 
earthquakes are caused by the burrowing of a gigantic 
insect might well be suggested by such a phenomenon." 

Hydrography — Rivers and Lakes. — The lofty range 
stretching southwards from Mount Asama forms the water 
parting between the Pacific and the Sea of Japan. But 
owing to the disposition of the mountain system, covering 
probably nine-tenths of the whole surface, no room is left 
for the development of large rivers. Those that do exist 
bear somewhat the character of mountain torrents with 
very rapid courses, and are liable to sudden and disastrous 
floodings in their lower reaches. Hence they are almost 
more damaging than beneficial even for irrigation purposes. 
To navigation, they are not merely useless, but a positive 
hindrance, owing to the large quantities of sedimentary 
matter which they bring down, and with which some of the 
best harbours in the country have been gradually filled in. 
Such has especially been the fate of Osaka and Niigata 
harbours, formerly accessible to the largest vessels, but 
which can now be approached only by small craft. In 



20 JAPAN 

Japan, " a river bed is a waste of sand, boulders and shingle, 
through the middle of which, among sandbanks and shal- 
lows, the river proper takes its devious course. In the 
freshets, which occur to a greater or less extent every year, 
enormous volumes of water pour over these wastes, carry- 
ing sand and detritus down to the mouths, which are all 
obstructed by bars. Of these rivers, the Shinano, being 
the biggest, is the most refractory and has piled up a bar at 
its entrance through which there is only a passage seven 
feet deep, which is perpetually shallowing. " ^ 

Of the few lakes, none is of any size except Biwa, a 
magnificent sheet of water some forty-five miles long, with 
a mean breadth of about ten miles. Biwa, which is 
traversed by the river Yodo, lies within eight miles of 
Kioto, the ancient capital of the Mikados, who usually 
spent the summer months with their suites on its romantic 
banks. It is closed north and west by lofty forest covered 
mountains, and elsewhere skirted by an open highly-culti- 
vated country dotted over with numerous villages and tea- 
houses, the resort of pleasure-seekers from all parts. Its 
clear waters, which abound in fish, are enlivened by fleets 
of tiny craft, including probably one hundred small steam- 
ers always crowded with passengers. 

* Bishop, Unbeaten Tracks in Japan (London, 1880). 



THE JAPANESE RACE 

JEAN JACQUES ELIS^E RECLUS 

THE dominant people in Japan are evidently a mixed 
race, in which the Aino element is but slightly 
represented. According to the prepossession of 
observers, they have been affiliated to various stocks ; but 
although Whitney and Morton regard them as members of 
the Caucasic family, most anthropologists class them with 
the Mongol races of Siberia and East Asia. The Chinese 
records referring to the land of Wo, that is, of Japan, 
before the inhabitants were acquainted with the art of 
tvriting, mention certain facts attesting the preponderating 
influence of Chinese civilization even at that remote epoch. 
Migrations must have taken place from the Yang-tze 
basin to the adjacent archipelago, and according to one 
legend the ancestors of the Japanese race were three hun- 
dred young men and women sent across the seas by the 
Emperor Tsin-Shi-hwangti in search of the flower of im- 
mortality. Many have suspected the presence of the Malay 
elements amongst the inhabitants of Nippon, while the 
curly hair and dark complexion common in the south have 
been referred by Siebold to a mixture with " Alfuros," 
Melanesians and Caroline Islanders. Vessels may certainly 
have often drifted northwards with the equatorial current 
and the Kuro-sivo, and it is possible that Japan may have 

21 



22 JAPAN 

in this way been peopled from the Pacific or East Indian 
Archipelagoes. 

Ethnologists have attempted to describe the character- 
istic Japanese type. But although at first sight few differ- 
ences are detected, foreigners residing in the country soon 
begin to distinguish two distinct types, which correspond 
partly to two social classes, and which the native artists 
have at all times reproduced and even exaggerated. These 
types are those of the peasants and the aristocracy. The 
features of the peasant approach nearest to those of the 
East Asiatic peoples. He has the same broad, flat face, 
crushed nose, low brow, prominent cheek bones, half-open 
mouth, small black and oblique eyes. He is best repre- 
sented in the northern division of Hondo, in the low-lying 
plain of Tonegava and on the highlands stretching west of 
Kioto. The nobles are distinguished by their lighter com- 
plexion, more pliant and less vigorous body, more elongated 
head, elevated brow and oval face. The cheek bones are 
but slightly prominent, the nose aquiline, mouth small, eyes 
very small and apparently oblique. Artists have accepted 
this aristocratic type as the ideal of beauty, transferring it 
to their gods and heroes, and exaggerating it in their por- 
traits of women. Being found chiefly in the Kioto district 
and on the slope facing the Pacific, it has been argued that 
these features belonged to a conquering " Polynesian " 
element from the eastern islands. But all shades of tradi- 
tion are now found between the two extremes, and owing 
to crossings and shiftings of fortune many of the nobles 




JAPANESE PRIESTS. 



THE JAPANESE RACE 23 

might be taken for plebeians, while the oval face and 
aquiline nose of the aristocracy are often found amongst 
the lower classes. On the whole, the Japanese face, with 
its olive complexion, lozenge shape and receding brow, is 
far from answering to the Western ideal of beauty, and to 
most foreigners seems decidedly plain. But this plainness 
in the case of the women is often counterbalanced by a 
graceful carriage, charming expression and tender glance. 
Those of Kioto and the southern regions bear the palm for 
beauty in the estimation both of natives and foreigners. 
Amongst the Samurai aristocracy many beardless youths 
betray a surprising resemblance to young women. 

To whatever class they may belong, all the Japanese are 
of low stature, averaging from five feet to five feet two 
inches in the men, and under five feet in the women. The 
lower orders are mostly robust, broad-shouldered, very 
straight, and endowed with a remarkable power of endur- 
ance. The Japanese coolie will carry a heavy load at a 
rapid pace for hours together, without stopping even when 
ascending steep mountain passes. Attendants on foot keep 
up with their master's horse crossing the country at full 
gallop, and the acrobats are unsurpassed in strength and 
activity by those of the west. A tendency to obesity is 
found only amongst the wrestlers, amongst whom the 
Mongolian type seems, by a sort of atavism, to be pre- 
served to a surprising degree. The artisans and peasantry 
are generally well-proportioned, except that they are often 
knock-kneed, a defect due to the way children are carrie<J 



24 JAPAN 

on their mothers' backs. They also become prematurely 
aged, both sexes being usually covered with wrinkles about 
their thirtieth year, and retaining of youth little beyond 
their white teeth and fiery glance. 

The prevailing malady is anemia, which sooner or later 
affects four-fifths of the whole population, and which is 
attributed to the almost exclusive use of rice and vegetables, 
possessing little albumen and fat. 

It is no longer obligatory to wear the national dress, and 
in their eagerness to imitate foreign ways, the lettered and 
trading classes have adopted the European costume, which, 
although very unbecoming, has the advantage of helping 
to get rid of the old class distinctions. Formerly the style 
and colours of the clothes worn by both sexes in every 
social position were strictly regulated by law or custom. 
The usual material was cotton, silk being reserved for the 
rich, or for grand occasions. The Kimono^ or robe of the 
women, differs only in its greater length and brilliancy from 
that of the men. In both the wide sleeves serve as pockets, 
and are usually filled with rolls of paper used as handker- 
chiefs, or table-napkins. Hence also "sleeve editions" 
answering to our small " pocket editions " of books. The 
costume is completed by a skirt in the upper classes, or 
drawers amongst the poor, while several robes are worn 
one over the other in cold weather. During the rainy 
season, the artisans and peasantry cover their clothes with 
straw or oil paper cloaks. All except the coolies and 
couriers wear the so-called hata^ high wooden clogs, which 



THE JAPANESE RACE 25 

require great care in walking, and are even the cause of 
nervous affections. The European boot is ill-suited for 
the muddy streets, and indoors they walk bare-footed on 
the fine matting of the floors. The head-dress, especially 
of the fair sex, is quite a work of art and much patient 
labour, consisting of a vast chignon of real and artificial 
hair, cunningly devised, and over which many hours are 
usually spent. Being unable to afford all this time every 
day, women engaged in work have their hair dressed once 
or twice a week only, and in order not to disturb the elab- 
orate superstructure, they are obliged to sleep with the 
neck resting on a wooden pillow, so as to keep the head 
free from contact with the bed-clothes. A white cosmetic 
on the face and neck, crimson on the cheeks, the eyebrows 
blackened, the lips covered with gold leaf, and the teeth 
with a brown pigment, and the toilet of the high-born 
lady of the olden times may be pronounced completed. 

Tattooing has been almost entirely abandoned by the 
women of all classes, and its use, even by the men, has 
now been forbidden by the Government. We learn from 
Matoualin that the nobles were formerly more richly deco- 
rated than the plebeians. But in recent times the most 
elaborate art has been lavished on the couriers and others, 
obliged, by their occupation, to appear almost naked in 
public. These designs, mostly in red, white and blue, 
are diversely interlaced without any symmetrical arrange- 
ment, but always with great taste, so that a graceful pro- 
portion is observed between the birds, dragons, flowers and 



26 JAPAN 

other more conspicuous objects. Thus a tree will be rep- 
resented with its roots twined round the right foot, the 
stem growing up the left leg, and covering the back or 
breast with its outspread leafy branches, on which are 
perched birds of various kinds. 

Made up as they are of so many heterogeneous elements, 
it is extremely difficult to form a just estimate of the 
Japanese people, and the difficulty is increased by their 
consciousness that they are just now, so to say, on their 
trial. They are consequently apt to assume false airs; 
and as they have endeavoured to assimilate themselves out- 
wardly to Europeans, by adopting a foreign garb, they, in 
the same way, affect the manners and tone of a nation 
long accustomed to Western culture. Except, perhaps, 
certain tribes of the New World, no people have developed 
to a higher degree the faculty of concealing their inward 
sentiments and preserving their equanimity under the most 
trying circumstances. Extremely reserved and sensitive to 
the opinion of others, they speak only after having well 
weighed their words, and maintain a sort of self-restraint 
in the presence of Europeans. Many officials have even 
taken to blue or coloured spectacles, in order the better to 
conceal their inmost thoughts; and even among themselves 
their outward indications of anger, contempt, affection, or 
other strong passions, are singularly moderate, compared 
with the vehemence of many Western peoples. They 
suffer impassively without wringing their hands in despair, 
or appealing to the Deity with outstretched arms and 



THE JAPANESE RACE 27 

upturned eyes. They have learnt from Europeans the 
custom of shaking hands, but it never approaches the 
hearty grasp of an Englishman. Mothers even rarely 
embrace their children ; and this general reserve extends 
even to the demented classes, so that a " dangerous luna- 
tic " is almost an unheard-of phenomenon in Nippon. 

The very effort to make a good appearance in the eyes 
of strangers speaks highly in favour of this interesting 
people. The are essentially kind-hearted, and nothing is 
rarer than instances of men rendered arrogant by their 
social position, and treating those beneath them with harsh- 
ness. Those in the enjoyment of power and privilege 
seek rather to avoid envy by their courtesy and considera- 
tion for others less favoured by fortune. No one, whatever 
his rank, assumes that haughty air which so many function- 
aries great and small, elsewhere regard as their most highly 
prized prerogative. From the custom of bowing gracefully 
to each other, the Japanese have gradually acquired a 
natural attitude of deference, while the expression of the 
features generally reflects their kindly disposition. Even 
under extreme suffering, patients preserve a mild glance 
and endearing tone. This innate amiability, conspicuous 
especially in the fair sex, is usually accompanied by the 
domestic virtues of temperance, order, thrift, and common 
sense. The young women united by temporary alliances 
with Europeans, as is the custom of the country, seldom 
fail to ingratiate themselves with them by their careful 
forethought, assiduous attention, and orderly management 



28 JAPAN 

of the household. Strangers are surprised at the cheerful- 
ness and calm resignation of the hard-working labouring 
classes, who adapt themselves to everything, and submit 
uncomplainingly to the greatest hardships and privations. 
Yet this resignation cannot be attributed to the want of a 
higher ideal. The eagerness with which the European 
arts and sciences have been welcomed shows how keen is 
the desire of progress amongst all classes. 

The Japanese are now committed to the new social evo- 
lution by a sense of honour, which has ever been one of 
their main springs of action. The practice of harakir'i^ or 
sappuku^ maintained for centuries among the nobles, attests 
the strength of will with which they are capable of assert- 
ing their personal dignity. Although not of native growth 
— for frequent mention is made of it in the Chinese annals — 
this custom has nowhere else become a national institution. 
Whether commanded by the Government in order to spare 
the nobleman a dishonourable death, or voluntarily per- 
formed in order to be indirectly avenged on an opponent 
by compelling him to give life for life, the act was always 
executed with scrupulous nicety. 

The history of the forty-seven ronin^ so determined in 
exacting vengeance for the murder of their master, so 
heroic in their self-sacrifice, is the most widely known in 
the country, and the graves of these daring men are still 
piously tended by the citizens of the imperial capital. The 
recent wars and revolutions also show that the people have 
not degenerated from the prowess of their forefathers, and 



THE JAPANESE RACE 29 

we may rest assured that should Russia or any other 
Western power become engaged in hostilities with them, 
it will meet with a formidable adversary. Hitherto the 
European powers have obtained easy triumphs over most 
Eastern nations, thanks to the superiority of their arma- 
ments and discipline. But the Japanese people are not 
one of those which will henceforth allow themselves to be 
conquered without a struggle, nor will civilization have to 
deplore the disgraceful subjection of 40,000,000 human 
beings who are rapidly placing themselves on a level with 
the most advanced states of Christendom. 

While recognizing the superiority of European science 
and industry, the Japanese are none the less, in certain 
respects even more, civilized than their foreign instructors. 
In all that regards frugality, self-respect, the sentiment of 
honour, mutual kindness and consideration, the mass of the 
people certainly stand on a higher level than most Western 
peoples. The humblest Japanese peasant has an eye open to 
the wild grandeur and softer charms of the landscape, and 
takes care to build his hut by the sparkling stream, in the 
shade of a leafy thicket, or on an eminence commanding a fair 
prospect of the surrounding scenery. His lowly dwelling 
is even usually adorned with flowering plants tastefully dis- 
posed. The country is not allowed to be disfigured by 
wayside inns erected on incongruous sites, and during the 
fine weather groups rather of tourists than pilgrims are 
everywhere met visiting the districts famous for their 
romantic beauty. 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 

BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN 

THE continuity of the Japanese mythology and his- 
tory has been fully recognized by the leading native 
commentators, whose opinions are those consid- 
ered orthodox by modern Shintoists, and they draw from it 
the conclusion that everything in the standard national his- 
tories must be accepted as literal truth, — the supernatural 
equally with the natural. But the general habit of the 
more sceptical Japanese of the present day, that is to say, 
of ninety-nine out of every hundred of the educated, is to 
reject or rather ignore the legends of the gods, while im- 
plicitly believing the legends of the emperors, from Jimmu 
Tenno, in b. c. 600, downwards. For so arbitrary a dis- 
tinction there is not a shadow of justification. The so- 
called history of Jimmu, the first earthly Mikado, of Jingo 
the conqueror of Korea, of Yamato-take, and of the rest, 
stands or falls by exactly the same criterion as the legends 
of the creator and creatress Izanagi and Izanami. Both 
sets of tales are told in the same books, in the same style, 
and with an almost equal amount of supernatural detail. 
The so-called historical part is as devoid as the other of all 
contemporary evidence. Arrived at a. d. 600, we stand 
on terra firma, and can afford to push on more quickly. 

30 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 31 

About that time occurred the greatest event of Japanese 
history, the conversion of the nation to Buddhism (approxi- 
mately A. D. 552-621). So far as can be gathered from 
the ancients of the early Chinese travellers, Chinese civili- 
zation had slowly — very slowly — been gaining ground in 
the archipelago ever since the Third Century after Christ. 
But when the Buddhist missionaries crossed the water, all 
Chinese institutions followed them and came in with a 
rush. Mathematical instruments and calendars were intro- 
duced ; books began to be written (the earliest that has 
survived, and indeed nearly the earliest of all, is the Kojiki, 
dating from a. d. 712) ; the custom of abdicating the throne 
in order to spend old age in prayer was adopted, a custom 
which, more than anything else, led to the effacement of 
the Mikado's authority during the Middle Ages. 

Sweeping changes in political arrangements began to be 
made in the year 645, and before the end of the Eighth 
Century, the government had been entirely remodelled on 
the Chinese centralized bureaucratic plan, with a regular 
system of ministers responsible to the sovereign, who, as 
" Son of Heaven," was theoretically absolute. In practice 
this absolutism lasted but a short time, because the entour- 
age and mode of life of the Mikados were not such as to 
make of them able rulers. They passed their time sur- 
rounded only by women and priests, oscillating between 
indolence and debauchery, between poetastering and gor- 
geous temple services. This was the brilliant age of Japa- 
nese classical literature, which lived and moved and had its 



32 JAPAN 

being in the atmosphere of an effeminate court. The 
Fujiwara family engrossed the power of the state during 
this early epoch (a. d. 670-1050). While their sons held 
all the great posts of government, their daughters were 
married to puppet emperors. 

The next change resulted from the impatience of the 
always manly and warlike Japanese gentry at the sight of 
this sort of petticoat government. The great clans of 
Taira and Minamoto arose, and struggled for and alter- 
nately held the reins of power during the second half of the 
Eleventh and the whole of the Twelfth Century. Japan 
was now converted into a camp ; her institutions were 
feudalized. The real master of the empire was he who, 
strongest with his sword and bow, and heading the most 
numerous host, could partition out the land among the 
chief barons, his retainers. By the final overthrow of the 
Taira family at the sea-fight of Dan-no-ura in a. d. 1185, 
Yoritomo, the chief of the Minamotos, rose to supreme 
power, and obtained from the Court at Kioto the title of 
Shogun, literally " Generalissimo," which bad till then 
been applied in its proper meaning to those generals who 
were sent from time to time to subdue the Ainos or rebel- 
lious provincials, but which thenceforth took to itself a 
special sense, somewhat as the word Imperator (also mean- 
ing originally " general ") did in Rome. The coincidence 
is striking. So is the contrast. For, as Imperial Rome 
never ceased to be theoretically a republic, Japan contrari- 
wise, though practically and indeed avowedly ruled by the 




TOMB OF lYEYASU, NIKKO. 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 33 

Shoguns from a. d. 1190 to 1867, always retained the 
Mikado as theoretical head of the state, descendant of the 
Sun-Goddess, fountain of all honour. There never were 
two emperors, acknowledged as such, one spiritual and one 
secular, as has been so often asserted by European writers. 
There never was but one emperor, — an emperor powerless, 
it is true, seen only by the women who attended him, often 
a mere infant in arms, who was discarded on reaching 
adolescence for another infant in arms. Still, he was the 
theoretical head of the state, whose authority was merely 
delegated to the Shogun as, so to say. Mayor of the Palace. 
By a curious parallelism of destiny, the Shogunate itself 
more than once showed signs of fading away from sub- 
stance into shadow. Yoritomo's descendants did not prove 
worthy of him and for more than a century (a. d. 1205- 
1333) the real authority was wielded by the so-called 
" Regents " of the Hojo family, while their liege-lords, the 
Shoguns, though keeping a nominal court at.Kamakura, 
were for all that period little better than empty names. So 
completely were the Hojos masters of the whole country, 
that they actually had their deputy governors at Kioto and 
in Kyushu in the south-west, and thought nothing of 
banishing Mikados to distant islands. Their rule was 
made memorable by the repulse of the Mongol fleet sent 
by Kublai Khan with the purpose of aiding Japan to his 
gigantic dominions. This was at the end of the Thirteenth ' 
Century, since which time Japan has never been attacked 
from without. 



34 JAPAN 

During the Fourteenth Century even the dowager-like 
calm of the Court of Kioto was broken by internecine 
strife. Two branches of the Imperial house, supported 
each by different feudal chiefs, disputed the crown. One 
was called Hokucho^ or " Northern Court," the other the 
Nancho^ or " Southern Court." After lasting some sixty 
years, this contest terminated in a. d. 1392, by the triumph 
of the Northern dynasty, whose cause the powerful Ashi- 
kaga family had espaused. From 1338 to 1565, the Ashi- 
kagas ruled Japan as Shoguns. Their Court was a centre 
of elegance, at which painting flourished, and the lyric 
drama, and the tea-ceremonies, and the highly intricate arts 
of gardening and flower-arrangement. But they allowed 
themselves to sink into effeminacy and sloth, as the Mikados 
had done before them ; and political authority, after being 
for some time administered less by them than in their 
name, fell from them altogether in 1597. 

Meanwhile Japan had been discovered by the Portuguese 
(a. d. 1542); and the imprudent conduct of the Portuguese 
and Spanish friars {hateren^ as they were called — a corrup- 
tion of the word padre) made of the Christian religion an 
additional source of discord. Japan fell into utter anarchy. 
Each baron in his fastness was a law unto himself. Then, 
in the latter half of the Sixteenth Century, there arose 
successively three great men, — Ota Nobunaga, the Taikun 
Hideyoshi, and Tokugawa lyeyasu. The first of these con- 
ceived the idea of centralizing all the authority of the state 
in a smgle person; the second, Hideyoshi, who has been 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 35 

called the Napoleon of Japan, actually put the idea into 
practice, and added the invasion of Korea (a. d. 1592- 
1598) to his domestic triumphs. Death overtook him in 
1598, while he was revolving no less a scheme than the 
conquest of China. lyeyasu, setting Hideyoshi's youthful 
son aside, stepped into the vacant place. An able general, 
unsurpassed as a diplomat and administrator, he first quelled 
all the turbulent barons, then bestowed a considerable por- 
tion of their lands on his own kinsmen and dependents, 
and either broke or balanced, by a judicious distribution of 
other fiefs over diff'erent provinces of the empire, the might 
of those greater feudal lords, such as Satsuma and Choshu, 
whom it was impossible to put altogether out of the way. 
The Court of Kioto was treated by him respectfully, and 
investiture as Shogun for himself and his heirs duly ob- 
tained from the Mikado. 

In order further to break the might of the Daimios, 
lyeyasu compelled them to live at Yedo, which he had 
chosen for his capital in 1590, during six months of the 
year, and to leave their wives and families there as hostages 
during the other half. What lyeyasu sketched out, the third 
Shogun of his line, lyemitsu, perfected. From that time for- 
ward, " Old Japan," as we know it from the Dutch ac- 
counts, from art, from the stage, was crystallized for two 
hundred and fifty years, — the Old Japan of isolation (for 
lyemitsu shut the country up, to prevent complications with 
the Spaniards and Portuguese), the Old Japan of picturesque 
feudalism, of harakiri^ of a society ranged in castes and or- 



36 JAPAN 

ders and officered by spies, the Old Japan of an ever-in- 
creasing skill in lacquer and porcelain, of aristocratic punc- 
tilio, of supremely exquisite taste. 

Unchangeable to the outward eye of contemporaries, 
Japan had not passed a hundred years under the Tokugawa 
regime before the seeds of the disease which finally killed 
that regime were sown. Strangely enough, the instrument 
of destruction was historical research. lyeyasu himself had 
been a great patron of literature. His grandson, the second 
Prince of Mito, inherited his taste. Under the auspices of 
this Japanese Maecenas a school of literati arose, to whom 
the antiquities of their country were all in all, — Japanese 
poetry and romance, as against the Chinese Classics ; the 
native religion, Shinto, as against the foreign religion, Bud- 
dhism ; hence by an inevitable extension, the ancient legiti- 
mate dynasty of the Mikados, as against the upstart Sho- 
guns. Of course this political portion of the doctrine of 
the literary party was kept in the background at first ; for 
those were not days when opposition to the existing govern- 
ment could be expressed or even hinted at without danger. 

Nevertheless it gradually grew in importance, so that, when 
Commodore Perry came with his big guns (a. d. 1853-4), 
he found a government already tottering to its fall, many 
who cared little for the Mikado's abstract rights caring a 
great deal for the chance of aggrandizing their own families 
at the Shogun's expense. 

The Shogun yielded to the demands of Perry and of the 
representatives of the other foreign powers — England, 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 37 

France, Russia — who followed in Perry's train, and con- 
sented to open Yokohama, Hakodate, and certain other 
ports to foreign trade and residence (1857-9). He even 
sent embassies to the United States and to Europe in i860 
and 1 86 1. The knowledge of the outer world possessed by 
the Court of Yedo, though not extensive, was sufficient to 
assure the Shogun and his advisers that it was in vain to re- 
fuse what the Western powers claimed. The Court of 
Kioto had no means of acquiring even this modicum of 
worldly wisdom. According to its view, Japan, " the land 
of the gods," should never be polluted by outsiders, the 
ports should be closed again, and the " barbarians " expelled 
at any hazard. 

What specially tended to complicate matters at this 
crisis was the independent action of certain Daimios. One 
of them, the Prince of Choshu, acting, as it is believed, un- 
der secret instructions from the Court of Kioto, fired on 
ships belonging to France, Holland and the United States, — 
thia too, at the very moment (1863) when the Shogun's 
government, placed between foreign aggression and home 
tumult, as between hammer and anvil, was doing its utmost 
to effect by diplomacy the departure of the foreigners whom 
it had been driven to admit a few years before. The conse- 
quence of this act was what is called "the Shimonoseki 
Affair," namely the bombardment of Shimonoseki, Choshu's 
chief sea-port, by the combined fleets of the powers that 
had been insulted, together with Great Britain which es- 
poused their cause on the ground of the solidarity of all for- 



38 JAPAN 

eign interests in Japan. An indemnity of $3,000,000 was 
exacted, — a last blow which broke the Shogunate's back. 
The Shogun lyemochi attempted to punish Choshu for the 
humiliation which he had brought on Japan, but failed, was 
himself defeated by the latter's troops, and died. Hitotsu- 
bashi, the last of his line, succeeded him. But the Court of 
Kioto, prompted by the great Daimyos of Choshu and Sat- 
suma, suddenly decided on the abolition of the Shogunate. 
The Shogun submitted to the decree, and those of his fol- 
lowers who did not were routed, — first at Fushimi near 
Kioto (17th January, 1868), then at Ueno in Yedo (4th 
July, 1868), then in Aizu (6th November, 1868), and lastly 
at Hakodate (27th June, 1869), where some of them had 
endeavoured to set up an independent republic. 

The government of the country was reorganized during 
1867-8, nominally on the basis of a pure absolutism, with 
the Mikado as the sole wielder of all authority both legisla- 
tive and executive. Thus the literary party had triumphed. 
All their dreams were realized. They were hencefortji to 
have Japan for the Japanese. The Shogunate, which had 
admitted the hated barbarian, was no more. Even their 
hope of supplanting Buddhism by the national religion, 
Shinto, was in great measure accomplished. They believed 
that not only European innovations, but everything — even 
Japanese — that was newer than a. d. 500, would be for- 
ever swept away. Things were to go back to what they 
had been in the primitive ages, when Japan was really " the 
land of the gods." 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 39 

From this dream they were soon roughly wakened. The 
shrewd clansmen of Satsuma and Choshu, who had hu- 
moured the ignorance of the Court and the fads of the schol- 
ars only as long as their common enemy, the Shogunate, 
remained in existence, now turned round and declared in 
favour, not merely of foreign intercourse, but of the Euro- 
peanization of their own country. History has never wit- 
nessed a more sudden volte-face. History has never wit- 
nessed a wiser one. We foreigners, being mere lookers-on, 
may no doubt sometimes regret the substitution of common- 
place European ways for the glitter, the glamour of pictur- 
esque Orientalism. But can it be doubtful which of the 
two civilizations is the higher, both materially and intellect- 
ually ? And does not the whole experience of the last three 
hundred years go to prove that no Oriental state which re- 
tains distinctively Oriental institutions can hope to keep its 
territory free from Western aggression ? What of India ? 
What even of China ? And what was Commodore Perry's 
visit but a threat to the effect that if Japan chose to remain 
Oriental, she should not be allowed to remain her own mis- 
tress ? From the moment when the intelligent Samurai of 
the leading clans realized that the Europeanization of the 
country was a question of life and death, they (for to this 
day the government has continued practically in their 
hands) have never ceased carrying on the work of reform 
and progress. 

The first and greatest step was when the Daimyos them- 
selves came forward to surrender their estates and privileges, 



40 JAPAN 

— when, in fact, the Japanese feudal system ended appropri- 
ately by committing harakiri. A centralized bureaucracy 
was set up on its ruins (187 1). At the same time all social 
disabilities were removed. Buddhism was disestablished, an 
Imperial mint opened, and posts and telegraphs — followed 
next year by railways — were introduced. In 1873 vacci- 
nation, the European calendar, and European dress for 
officials were adopted, torture was abolished, and the 
persecution of Christians stopped. At the same time 
photography, meat-eating, and other " Europeanisms " 
came pell-mell into vogue, not without official encourage- 
ment ; and an edict was issued against wearing the queue. 
Steamship companies were established (1875-1885), an im- 
mense financial reform was effected by the commutation of 
the Samurai's pensions (1876), a Bourse and Chamber of 
Commerce were inaugurated at Tokio (1878), new codes 
inspired by the Code Napoleon began to be published 
(1880), a Supreme Court of Justice was instituted (1883), 
and the English language was introduced into the curric- 
ulum of the common schools (1884). Most notable, next 
to 1873, were 1885-7, the years of the great "foreign 
fever," when Japanese society was literally submerged in a 
flood of European influence, such things as foreign dress 
for ladies, dancing, athletics, card-playing, etc., etc, coming 
m with a rush, while what is still remembered as the 
0-jishin, or " Great Earthquake,'* shook the political world. 
Then were administrative methods reformed, the hitherto 
excessive number of officials reduced, and new men, such 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 41 

as Ito and Inouye — names still the most famous in the 
land — assumed the highest posts. 

The failure in 1887, of long-protracted negotiations for 
treaty revision made of that year a turning-point in modern 
Japanese history. A strong reaction set in against for- 
eigners and their ways, which has lasted ever since, leading 
occasionally to murderous attacks on foreign residents and 
even to one on the present Czar of Russia, who happened 
as Czarewitch to be visiting Japan in 1891. Notwith- 
standing reaction, however, a long-promised Constitution, 
modelled to some extent on that of Prussia, was granted in 
1889. Unfortunately it failed from the very beginning to 
work smoothly, and summary suspension, following on 
violent altercations, has come to be looked forward to as 
the most likely fate of the yearly session, while the gradual 
consolidation of divers political parties in the state has 
helped to induce considerable exacerbation of feeling. Be- 
sides the promulgation, from time to time, of the new 
codes, the most important administrative events of the last 
few years have been the promulgation of the Local Self- 
Government Act in 1888, the granting of bounties for 
navigation and ship-building in 1896, and the adoption of 
the gold standard in 1897. ^^ international politics, the 
revision of the treaties with the various great powers calls 
for prominent notice. That with England was concluded 
first, in August, 1894, with the United States a few months 
later, Russia in 1895, Germany in 1896. Those with 
France and Austria are still (1898) under discussion. 



42 JAPAN 

In the summer of 1894, the Japanese government sud- 
denly and silently despatched to the mainland of Asia a 
large body of troops, who occupied Korea and seized the 
persons of the king and royal family, " with the object " — 
so it was officially stated — " of maintaining Korean inde- 
pendence," thence proceeding to make war on China, " in 
order to establish the peace of the Orient." The war 
grew naturally out of the condition of Japan herself at that 
particular juncture. Perpetual dissensions between the Diet 
and the executive were fast putting the working of the 
new Constitution out of gear, — straining it in fact to 
breaking point. Meanwhile the admirably-trained army, 
like a racer panting for its trial of speed, had long been 
impatient for a fight with some one, somewhere, anywhere. 
To these motives were superadded the desire — now that 
treaty revision with all the foreign powers was imminent— 
of abolishing an inconvenient early treaty with China, and 
above all, the longing to make a figure in the world, to 
show Russia and England that Japan was no mere play- 
ground for aesthetically disposed tourists, but a great power, 
the great power of the East. Surely here were reasons 
enough. Plausible excuses for taking offence, if one is on 
the look-out for doing so, are never lacking between close 
neighbours so mutually antipathetic in temper as the pro- 
gressive, mercurial islanders and the conservative conti- 
nentals. The result brilliantly justified the shrewd calcula- 
tions of the Japanese government. Their preparations, — 
spread over years, but carried on so quietly that not one of 



THE HISTORY OF JAPAN 43 

the foreign legations suspected aught unusual to be in 
hand, — were complete in every point ; their troops behaved 
splendidly, and the enemy generally ran away. Within a 
year of the inception of the war, China had been forced 
to cede to Japan the province of Liao-tung, besides paying 
a heavy indemnity ; and when Russia, Germany and 
France unexpectedly stepped in to forbid the cession of 
any territory on the Chinese mainland, the large and fertile 
island of Formosa was obtained instead. 

The simple and ardent patriotism of the Japanese people 
during the war was as admirable as the statecraft of their 
rulers : — they moved as one man. Whatever troubles 
Japan may have in store for her, — troubles financial per- 
haps, complications with foreign powers, troubles arising 
from the constant yearning of small but influential sections 
of her people for radical changes in government, — one 
thing is certain : — the late war has made for stability and 
for safety, for increased commerce, increased influence, and 
national self-respect. New Japan has come of age. 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 

rOSHITARO TAMJSHITA 

SHINTO has been the religion of the Japanese na- 
tion from the very commencement of its history, 
and cannot be separated from it. Buddhism, 
though introduced at a much later period, has exercised, 
with its subtle doctrines and gorgeous ritual, a far-reaching 
influence over the nation, and it is natural, therefore, to find 
numerous traces of its effect upon the people of the Em- 
pire. 

I propose to deal first with Shinto, not only because it is 
the national religion of Japan, but because it is by far the 
simpler of the two, and a very few words will suffice to 
consider its effects. 

Students of this religion must have been struck with the 
simplicity of its doctrine. It enforces no especial moral 
code, embraces no philosophical ideas, and, moreover, it has 
no authoritative books to guide believers. Its one peculiar 
feature is the relation it holds towards the Imperial Family 
of Japan, whose ancestors are made the chief object of wor- 
ship. This religion, if indeed it can be rightly called a 
religion at all, amounts to ancestor-worship — the apoth- 
eosis of the Japanese Imperial Family. This fact naturally 
brings about two results : one is that Shinto can never be 

44 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 45 

propagated beyond the realms of the Japanese Emperor ; 
the other, that it has helped to a very great extent the 
growth of the spirit of loyalty of Japanese subjects towards 
their head, and has enshrined the Imperial Family with such 
a degree of sacredness and reverence that it would be 
difficult to name another ruling family which is looked up 
to by its subjects with the same amount of loyal homage 
and submissive veneration. It is, indeed, a unique circum- 
stance in the history of nations, that, during the two 
thousand five hundred years of its sway, the position of the 
Japanese Imperial Family as head of the whole nation has 
never once been disputed, nor even questioned, by the people. 
Of course, it is true that the dynasty has experienced many 
vicissitudes, but, although the actual government has at 
times been in the hands of powerful nobles and Shoguns, 
the throne has, nevertheless, been always kept sacred for the 
descendants of Jimmu, the first Emperor. In the recent 
history of Japan, this single fact, coupled with the great 
wisdom displayed by the present t^mperor, explains, in a 
great measure, the secret of the rapid, yet coherent, change 
which the country has undergone since the beginning of the 
Meiji era. Had it not been for the presence of the Em- 
peror as the centre of popular reverence and affection, it is 
difficult to tell whether the country would not have been 
thrown into an inextricable chaos of conflicting interests and 
factions during the period of this radical change. Every 
Japanese feels deeply grateful for the resultant benefits de- 
rived from the transition, the achievement of which was 



46 JAPAN 

due to the sagacity and foresight of the Imperial Family ; 
while the Shinto must also be assigned a share of the 
honours, by virtue of the fact that its influence has brought 
about and preserved intact the loyal spirit of the people 
for upwards of twenty-five centuries. 

With this single yet not insignificant result, I must leave 
Shinto, and pass on to the consideration of the wide and 
many-sided influence exercised over Japan by Buddhism. 

Buddhism was first introduced in Japan in a. d. 584, 
during the reign of the Emperor Bitatsu. At first many 
bitter conflicts naturally occurred between the adherents of 
the old and the new beliefs. But Prince Shotoku, a man 
of high education and great resource, and therefore the 
wielder of considerable power in the land, having been con- 
verted to its tenets, Buddhism at once began to make rapid 
headway. One of the nobles, named Moriya, who watched 
with misgivings the pushing aside of the old national relig- 
ion, felt constrained to resort to force of arms in order to 
check the progress of the heathen belief, but he was speedily 
overwhelmed and killed. Then, chiefly through the in- 
strumentality of the governing classes, temple after temple 
was erected in various parts of the country, and Buddhism 
soon took firm root in Japan. At a later period, during the 
long-continued peace of nearly three hundred years under 
the Tokugawa administration, which preceded the present 
Meiji era, strict feudalism prevailed throughout the whole of 
the country, and, as a consequence, many men of high at- 
tainments but humble birth were excluded from every 




SHINTO TEMPLE, KOBE. 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 47 

sphere of action except the circumscribed one of the 
priesthood. It came about, therefore, that although Con- 
fucianism was actively encouraged during this time of pro- 
tracted peace, nevertheless Buddhism produced a large 
number of distinguished leaders of the faith. In this way, 
I think, the most subtle and refined forms of Buddhism 
were developed in Japan to a greater degree than in India, 
where it originated, or in China, whence it spread to Japan. 
The many things for which Japan is indebted to Bud- 
dhism may be classified briefly under two heads: first, those 
which were introduced into the country with Buddhism; 
and, second, the developments which can be traced to its 
traditions, its doctrines and its culture. 

Under the first head must be mentioned the following : 
Sculpture and Metal-work. — Sculpture undoubtedly re- 
ceived its first impetus through the introduction of Bud- 
dhistic images. Old historians state that the carving of 
images in stone was practised from very remote ages, but 
the production of wood and copper statues and reliefs cer- 
tainly dates from the introduction of Buddhism. The am- 
bassadors sent to Korea by the Emperor Bitatsu, returned 
in 584 A. D., with a stone image of Buddha, and this was 
the first of the models brought from time to time into 
Japan, and from which the Japanese artists made their 
copies. According to " Kogei-Shiryo," certain relics have 
been discovered which can be proved to be the products of 
this period. It seems that the early Japanese artists did 
not confine themselves to the carving of Buddhistic images, 



48 JAPAN 

but produced also representations of the Shinto gods and 
animals. Though Shinto carvings are now very rare, those 
of animals are often to be met with — usually at the en- 
trance to a temple ; and it is recorded that when the gate 
of Tendaiji Temple, in Nara, was in course of construc- 
tion in A. D. 1 196, men were sent to China to procure 
stones suitable for the carving of lions and Buddhistic im- 
ages. The production of wooden and copper images was 
also encouraged, and, when the temples were built, wood- 
carving was applied to other objects in addition to statues. 

Embroidery. — Embroidery is also considered to have been 
introduced into Japan in the same way. The first record 
of this class of work dates from the thirteenth year of the 
reign of the Empress Suiko, when, at her orders, two im- 
ages of Buddha, one in copper and the other in embroidery, 
were made by Japanese artists. 

Besides these, there are several other branches of art 
culture which owe their first introduction to Buddhism, 
but, having regard to the more interesting character of the 
second class, namely the developments which can be traced 
to its traditions, doctrines and culture, I pass on at once to 
consider them. 

Education. — A debt of gratitude is due to Buddhism 
for its unstinted encouragement of education for a 
period of several centuries. China, in addition to many 
other things, supplied Japan with her philosophy and litera- 
ture, and the first serious attention paid to education dates 
from the reign of Ojin, a period much anterior to the ap- 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 49 

pearance of Buddhism ; for a long period after that date 
able scholars were continually sent by the government to 
the land of our teachers, in order to keep pace with the ad- 
vancement of their learning. 

Subsequently, however, the power of the Japanese cen- 
tral government gradually waned, and the actual governing 
power was transferred in the latter part of the Twelfth 
Century to the military class, with the result that the 
country was plunged into a state of continual warfare be- 
tween the leading military families. In consequence of 
this, education became entirely neglected by the govern- 
ment. The Buddhist priests were, however, well versed 
in Chinese literature, and the monasteries soon became 
centres of learning, and from that time onwards until three 
centuries ago, when Tokugawa came into power, it was 
kept almost entirely in the hands of the Buddhists. This 
explains the existence of the many Buddhistic institutions 
and ideas which have taken so firm a hold upon Japanese 
daily life. 

Toleration. — A distinctly commendable feature of Bud- 
dhism is its capacity for assimilating the practices and teach- 
ings of other religions. Among its many sects, some, of 
course, hold decidedly narrow and bigoted views ; but, gen- 
erally speaking, a respect for the tenets of rival religions is 
a distinguishing characteristic of the adherents of Buddhism. 
An instance of this is to be seen in the ready absorption of 
Confucian doctrines, and in the adoption of many Shinto 
ceremonies. This attitude towards other faiths, coupled, 



50 JAPAN 

perhaps, with the peculiarly undevotional character of the 
average Japanese, and the Confucian doctrine of self-cul- 
ture, has developed to a remarkable degree that spirit of re- 
ligious toleration which is sometimes difficult to distinguish 
from a general indifference to religious matters. It fre- 
quently occurs that, while the birth of a baby is celebrated 
in accordance with Shinto customs, Buddhist priests are in- 
vited to preside over the burial of the dead. Even the 
places of worship were used in common by the followers 
of the two religions, until with the revival of Shinto 
ideas, the government took steps to separate them. This 
may be explained in a measure by the fact that both Bud- 
dhism and Confucianism, as understood by the educated 
classes of Japan, inculcate the same doctrine of self-cul- 
ture. But the assimilation of the essence of other benefits 
by Buddhism is, it seems to me, quite as much responsible 
for this far-reaching spirit of toleration. 

Many of the time-honoured maxims of Japan exhort the 
people to disabuse their minds of the idea that the particular 
one they are following is the only road to salvation, and 
emphasize the fact that there are several others leading to 
the same goal which are equally worthy of respect and at- 
tention. A typical example is found in a short stanza: 

" To reach the mountain's crest are many ways, 
But all meet there beneath the moon's bright rays. 
From yonder tow'ring peak her smile serene 
Reveals the beauty of the native scene." 

It is by no means uncommon to find several different re- 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 51 

ligions in one family ; for instance, the man may be a 
Shintoist, his wife a Buddhist, and their grown-up children 
Christians, yet their diversity of beliefs seldom disturbs in 
the slightest degree the tranquillity and happiness of home- 
life. This equanimity of disposition seems to suggest that 
the conversion of the people to a new belief could be easily 
accomplished in Japan, provided that it were possible to 
prove that the new one is better than the old, and that un- 
deniable reasonings could be marshalled in support of it. 

The Love of Natural Beauty^ and its Effect, — A Buddhist 
temple is usually built upon a site which commands a view 
of the most beautiful and imposing scenery in the neigh- 
bourhood, and it will be sometimes situated far up in a 
mountain several miles from the nearest town or village. 
It is not my intention to inquire into the reason why pref- 
erence was originally given to a position remarkable for 
imposing scenery rather than for convenience of access. 
What we are more concerned with is the indirect influence 
upon the country brought about by this peculiarity. The 
most apparent result was the opening up of the country as 
the natural outcome of making new roads leading to the 
temples, and but for which roads many villages would 
never have arisen until a much later period. Apart, how- 
ever, from this essentially material benefit, there seems to 
be another which has left its mark even more plainly upon 
Japanese character. As I have already said, most of the 
famous temples are built upon spots especially chosen by 
reason of their great natural beauty, and this selection of a 



52 JAPAN 

picturesque environment for the place of worship and med- 
itation could not fail to exercise a very powerful influence 
upon the minds of worshippers. A result of this seems to 
be that a love of natural beauty has become one of the 
strongest characteristics of the people, and this has been 
fostered by the tenets of Buddhism, which hold all the 
products of nature in the highest veneration. 

As a demonstration of this love of natural beauty, a 
Japanese garden may be cited. When a family is not in a 
position to make its home in the midst of fine natural 
scenery, a counterfeit presentment of it on a reduced scale 
is usually contrived. , Hills, valleys, rocks, streams, lakes, 
woods, thickets and bridges are all faithfully planned out 
upon a suitable scale just as an artist composes a landscape 
on canvas. The Japanese mode of procedure is in direct 
contrast to European methods of gardening. One tries to 
hide everything but that which is natural, while the other 
endeavours to render nature subservient to his own ideas. 

There is an anecdote told of Rikiu, Master of the Tea- 
Ceremony in the service of Hideyoshi known to Western 
notions as Taikun. Rikiu is known to have introduced 
into Chanoyu, or the Tea-Ceremony, many Buddhistic 
ideas. It is related that one day Rikiu was ordered to 
prepare a garden for the reception of some guests. When, 
however, Rikiu went to the garden he found that every 
possible attention had already been bestowed upon it. 
Every corner was swept scrupulously clean, and not a foot- 
print disturbed the freshly sanded paths. He regarded it 




DAI-BUTSU, UENO, TOKIO. 



SHINTO AND BUDDHISM 53 

critically for a moment or two, and then went to a large 
tree that stood at one end, and, by giving it a shake, 
brought down a few dead leaves. He then reported to his 
master that the garden was ready for the reception of his 
guests. 

I think I may safely assert that this idea of beauty 
largely owes its development, either directly or indirectly, 
to Buddhistic influences. 



THE JAPANESE TORLI 

SAMUEL TUKE 

NO one who has ever visited Japan, not even the 
most cursory of haste-impelled globe-trotters, can 
forget the curious but picturesque gateways 
which form so characteristic a feature in the Japanese land- 
scape. As a rule, they serve as entrances to shrines or 
temple grounds, venerated spots, or funereal enclosures; 
but they not infrequently appear in all sorts of unexpected 
places, where it is difficult to assign any satisfactory 
reason for their existence. 

Every one who has been over the Nagasendo, recollects 
the Tori-i Toge^ " the pass of the Tori-i^^ where the old road 
passes through a Tori-i planted on the summit of a pass. 
It is impossible to wander over the sunny, flower-decked 
hillsides, and through the mysterious, shaded valley groves 
of Dai Nippon, without coming across numbers of these 
curious structures. 

Let us pass beneath one at hazard, and having done so, 
leave the main track for a narrow footpath through a dark 
grove of cryptomerias, a few steps along which will bring 
us to a flight of moss-grown stone stairs leading up the 
steep hillside to a terrace of masonry, upon which, half 
hidden in a grove of sacred trees, stands a shingle-roofed, 

54 



THE JAPANESE TORI-I S5 

wooden Shinto shrine. Having dimbed the steps, we pass 
beneath a second Tori-i^ and, having deposited a few 
coppers in the offertory chest, placed for its maintenance 
in front of the little " miya^'' we stroll round to its further 
side. There, at the back, we may find yet another little 
Tori-i^ and a path by which we can clamber for a short 
distance further up the hillside. But soon the track loses 
itself in the tangled brushwood and luxuriant growth of 
weeds apparently leading nowhere. So we retrace our 
steps, and, leaving the shrine behind, go carefully down the 
damp and slippery stone stairs and reach the main path and 
the sunlight once more. Further on we come across 
another Tori-i^ this time, perhaps, rising from a jungle of 
tall bamboo grass, with here and there a tree of some sort, 
and many an azalea bush or trail of wisteria in full blossom. 
Again we leave the main track to pass beneath the Tori-i, 
We follow the narrow footpath, which leads us on and on 
through the jungle of grasses and flowering shrubs; here 
and there we notice a hw strips of paper tied to a bush, or 
a straw rope, evidently placed in position by some devout 
hand. Perhaps the path grows steeper, and the trees and 
bushes denser, when again our path vanishes in the under- 
growth, or possibly branches in several directions only to 
lead us nowhere. A second time we retrace our steps ; 
perhaps we have passed some forgotten Shinto tomb or 
graveyard, which has given us no trace of its existence, 
owing to the thick masses of vegetation which have for 
years outgrown it. So we return to the main track again, 



56 JAPAN 

none the wiser for our exploration, though our minds may 
be full of conjectures as to the object of that particular 

Tori-i. 

But, as every globe-trotter knows, the Tori-i is as 
common in the cities as in the country districts of Japan ; 
it is also a familiar object to those who, never having had 
the good fortune to visit the country, are, notwithstanding, 
lovers of Japanese art, and know something of the salient 
features of Japanese landscape from the works of her 
artists and artisans. Perhaps no artists have better repro- 
duced these salient features in a form intelligible to the 
uninitiated foreigner than Hokusai and Hiroshige. If 
any one wishes to recall the forms of the Tori-i distinctly 
to his mind, he has only to look through the Fu-ji hak "kei^ 
or perhaps, better still, the Sumi-da gawa rio-gan ichi-ran^ 
or the Fu-gaku san-jiu-rok ^kei^ and he will find his memory 
sufficiently and satisfactorily restored. 

From these pictures it is evident that Tori-i are not all 
of the same form. These two forms are sometimes con- 
sidered to belong respectively to the two religions of Japan: 
the simpler to the Shinto worship ; the latter and more 
complex to Buddhism. If we accept Fergusson's state- 
ment that the Toran of India is the ancestor of the 
Tori-i^ it appears probable that the more complex form is 
the older, and that the simpler is nothing more nor less 
than a rustic copy of a more highly developed original, 
which formed an integral portion of th^ architecture of a 
religious cult older than Buddhism, 




t4 
< 

< 

< 



f4. 
O 



THE JAPANESE TORI-I 57 

There are, indeed, some who tell us that the Tori-i is a 
form of Buddhist architecture which has in Japan been 
adapted to the Shinto cult. It is true that the two religious 
systems of Japan, since they have been able to exist 
peaceably side by side, appear, at a certain period, to have 
got somewhat mixed up with one another, yet on the 
whole, it seems safer to take the generally received opinion 
that Tori-i of both kinds are structures belonging to the 
Shinto worship. 

The usual material for their construction is naturally 
wood, occasionally painted bright red ; but stone and 
bronze are sometimes employed. 

The Tori-i can hardly have been introduced Into Japan 
much later than 250 b. c. For after this date both stone 
architecture and the Buddhist religion would have become 
influences which could not have failed to somewhat alter 
both its form and purpose along the course of its migration 
north-eastward. 

Now, it is hardly fanciful to imagine that the early con- 
querors of Japan were either refugees from the mainland 
driven over seas by some displacement of the races of 
Central Asia, or else warriors, who, finding the tide of 
races driven eastward by the conquests of Western powers, 
turned their attention to the far Eastern islands. 

If then, the Shinto religion was brought to Japan by the 
ancestors of the present Japanese on their first settlement 
in the country, and is not a purely indigenous growth, it is 
not altogether improbable that it originally came from India, 



58 JAPAN 

It would, I think, be difficult for any one who has followed 
me to this point to fail to have been struck by the curious 
resemblance between the names Tori-i and Toran. He 
may also have said with equal justice that our own word 
" door " is not unlike Toran. 

The word Tori-i is written with two characters which 
signify " bird-dwelling," and the native account of its origin 
is quoted, and, it would seem accepted, by even so high an 
authority as Mr. Satow, who writes of it as follows : 

" The Tori-i was originally a perch for the fowls offered 
up to the gods, not as food, but to give warning of day- 
break. It was erected on any side of the temple indiffer- 
ently. In later times, not improbably after the introduc- 
tion of Buddhism, its original meaning was forgotten ; it 
was placed in front only, and supposed to be a gateway. 
Tablets with inscriptions (^gaku) were placed on the Tori-i. 
with this belief, and one of the first things done after the 
restoration of the Mikado in 1868, in the course of the 
purification of the Shinto Temples, was the removal of 
these tablets. The etymology of the word is evidently 
'bird-rest.' The T'ori-i gradually assumed the character 
of a general symbol of Shinto, and the number which 
might be erected to the honour of a deity became practi- 
cally unlimited. The Buddhists made it of stone and 
bronze, and frequently of red-painted wood, and developed 
various forms." 

It has been pointed out that nearly the whole of Japanese 
civilization came from abroad, so that it is hardly likely 



THE JAPANESE TORM 59 

that the Shinto religion and its accompanying architectural 
forms are purely indigenous growth. For the Japanese 
historians themselves record a migration of their ancestors 
from some foreign country at an early date. Is it not more 
likely that these early settlers brought their religion and its 
architecture with them, than that they created them subse- 
quently ? Such a proposition gives a much more venerable 
age to the Shinto cult. 

Supposing, then, that the ancestors of the present Japa- 
nese did bring their religious cult with them to Japan, and 
the Tori-i along with it, Fergusson's theory appears to 
offer a probable solution of the question whence that cult 
and the Tori-i came. It may even throw a ray of light 
upon the early dwelling-place of a portion, at all events, 
of the present Japanese race. 




THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 

SIR EDWARD J. REED 

UR long journey from the old capital (Kioto) 
to the new (Tokio) was resumed on Thursday, 
March 13, at 7 a. m. All the shops and places 
of business appeared to be open and in operation as we 
rattled through Nagoya and Miya, although the hour was 
so early. There were several very pretty gateways in 
Miya which I should have been glad to have sketched had 
time allowed, but a passing glance was all we could devote 
to them. The shrines of Atsuta, with their mystic sword, 
their towering trees, their crowded light pillars and simple 
ceremonies, were soon passed and left behind, and behind us 
likewise loomed up the great Honganji temple, and beyond, 
the mountains — mountain-shrines, shall we call them ? — 
hung with curtain-screens like Atsuta, but in this case the 
screens were blue, and wrought of valley mist and morning 
light. Numerous temples, and still more numerous shrines 
much simpler than temples, were passed during the day, and 
at many of them, here as elsewhere, the stone basins in front 
of them for the washing of the hands received their water 
from spouting bronze dragons of considerable size and 
much artistic merit. 

Soon after leaving Miya we were again upon the great 

60 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 61 

Tokaido road, which throughout the day, as on some former 
days, was a fine, smooth, well-kept road between the towns 
and the villages, but was much neglected where it passed 
through them — a point which would seem to require some 
attention on the part of both the central and local govern- 
ments. The road traversed by bridges several large rivers, 
the beds of which were raised above the neighbouring land- 
level by as much as ten feet. After a short halt at the 
town of Narumi, where cotton spinning is carried on, and 
transit through another in which dyeing is successfully 
practised, we passed through the famous battle-field in 
which the great Shogun of three days, so to call him, 
Yoshimoto, engaged the redoubtable Nobunaga in the Six- 
teenth Century, and was defeated by him and killed. A 
monument to his (Yoshimoto's) memory was passed in a 
field on our right — a simple column of stone, surrounded 
by a railing of wood. Luncheon was taken at the town 
of Okazaki, the birthplace of lyeyasu, at which are the 
great granite quarries from which the capital, Tokio, and 
many other places, are provided with that stone ; the near- 
ness of Okazaki to the bay of Owari and its branches 
greatly facilitating the supply of this stone to towns and 
cities near the coast. The remainder of the day's journey 
was completed at four o'clock in the apparently thriving 
town of Yoshida, which is situated on a branch of the great 
river Tenriu, which finds its way into the sea further east- 
ward. This town does a considerable trade in timber, most 
of the roof-rafters for Tokio going hence. 



62 JAPAN 

Early on Friday, the 14th of March, after another night 
of rain we pursued our journey eastward in an atmosphere 
of delightful freshness, in a north-western breeze of consid- 
erable force, and in sunshine that made the morning per- 
fect. We were soon skirting on our left ranges of wooded 
hills, rolling away to mountains in the distance. I was in- 
formed that on one of the finest and most sheer and lofty 
of these high wooded hills there was a temple. I had 
chosen a position in the procession o^ jinriki-shas well to the 
rear, so that I had before me the shifting picture of more 
than a dozen of these curious little carriages, with double 
that number of half-nude men trotting them along at a rate 
of six to seven miles an hour, their red and blue colours 
dancing with their movements, and little flags surmounted 
with branches of bright heather, or something like it, wav- 
ing at the side of each carriage. 

When we came to Siomizaka, there, on the high cluster 
of granite rocks, several hundred feet above us, and on a 
summit to which it would be difficult to lift even a living 
and breathing life-size goddess, was a large bronze statue of 
Kwannon, thirteen feet high, gazing over land and over the 
sea, which we know by the name to be within her view, 
though we could not see it, and apparently not a little 
proud of her elevation — proud in the very presence of the 
Sun-Goddess herself, who, indeed, did not disdain to adorn 
her brazen brow with a touch of her own bright light. 

Leaving the goddess to her lofty meditations, we rolled 
on through a fine country, very wild, and wooded and moun- 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 63 

tainous on our left, and very level, and cultivated and 
glistening with rIce-swamps on our right. The road next led 
us up a succession of long hills, in ascending which I gladly 
availed myself of the opportunity thus afforded for a delight- 
ful morning walk. Presently we came out for a short time 
upon a comparatively open road, and a shrill voice ex- 
claimed "Fujiyama!" and there indeed, somewhat away 
on our left (broad on our port bow, as a sailor would put 
it), was the superb mountain which we had not seen for 
five weeks, and which, as it now stood up, nearly ninety 
miles off, above the nearer and darker mountains — stood up, 
whiter with snow than If wrought with silver, purer than 
the very sky into which it towered, and more perfect in 
form than any mortal hands could model — was a shrine of 
splendour worthy of the true God, and a consecration to 
the land which is so fortunate as to form its pedestal. It 
was a native gentleman who saw It first ; not a poet, not an 
artist, not a seer of any sort ; but he was a man, and a 
Japanese, and he clapped his hands and shouted with de- 
light, and with the joy of seeing once again the sacred 
mountain, and of turning the eyes of us strangers towards it. 
While we gazed with wonder and almost with worship 
upon this " most awful Form," another voice shouted " The 
sea ! " and there on our right lay before us, and low be- 
neath us, and rolling far away over the horizon's arc, the 
living liquid splendour of the sea indeed. " Isn't it just 
like gauze ! " shouted another of the party from a distance ; 
and although one feels some reluctance to associate with 



64 JAPAN 

the ocean the name of so frail a thing as gauze, yet there 
was so soft and semi-transparent and delicate a look about 
the sea on this occasion, viewed from our height, that one 
felt the verisimilitude of the metaphor. I never before saw 
the sea so utterly beautiful. On this sun-bright morning, 
on which the breeze seemed saturate with the sun, and the 
sun blown through with breeze, both sun and breeze 
seemed to mix with the sea, until the whole surface foamed 
with life and light. 

We now dipped down from the height, and after a short 
run entered the village of Arai, which is — or rather was, 
for the Tokaido has now taken another and newer route 
near this place, and the gate is removed — one of the gates 
of the Tokaido, giving upon an inlet of the sea over which 
the passengers have to be ferried. Our party at once em- 
barked in several boats which were awaiting for us, and a 
strong stern breeze drove us quickly over the two or three 
miles of shallow water to the village of Mayezaka, in the 
province of Totomi. Here we re-entered our jinriki-shas 
and started for our luncheon-place, Hamamatsu. 

Before reaching Hamamatsu we pass the broad river of 
Tenriu (Tenriugawa)by the longest bridge in Japan, nearly 
four thousand feet in length. This river is navigable in its 
main stream for one hundred and twenty miles from the 
sea, which but ^tw rivers in Japan are, owing to the narrow- 
ness of the country, and the nearness of the mountains to 
the sea in very many cases. 

The next day's journey lay chiefly over hills and river- 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 65 

beds, with occasional transits over lovely valleys. A fine 
walk indeed we had through Swiss-like scenery, with occa- 
sional views over large extents of lowlands, now and then 
glimpses of the distant sea, and suddenly, after passing the 
first summit, such a full-fronted view of Fujiyama as might 
have well repaid a far more laborious climb. Later on, after 
passing across a valley and ascending a second hill, we came 
upon another and still more beautiful view of the sacred 
mountain, the highest in Japan, which rises 13,000 feet 
clear away from the sea. We could not, however, see the 
base from our position, but we saw what was perhaps better 
as an object of beauty. Below its snow-covered summit 
and sides, the lower and darker part of the mountain ap- 
peared of the self-same blue as the sky above, so that the 
mountain of snow seemed poised in Heaven — perhaps sus- 
pended there after the fashion in which one of our poets 
has imagined the world to be — 

" Hung by gold chains about the feet of God." 

Below Fuji were lower ranges of mountains, darkly con- 
trasting with it; then, nearer, came low wooded hills; 
nearer still, the broad, rough, stony bed of the Oigawa, 
with swift streams chasing down it, and sand-storms driv- 
ing over it ; and nearer still a village, and tea-plantations, 
and the Tokaido sweeping down with its wild borderings 
of old and twisted trees. On all the sun shone brightly, 
and over all the gale blew swiftly, so that we had before us 
such a scene as artists might well paint and poets edit. 



66 JAPAN 

Dipping down to the village below, Kanaya, where other 
jinriki-shas awaited us, we started in them for Fusieda. 
Our way lay first across the Oigawa, and through the 
driving sand-storms which we had enjoyed as part of a 
picture, but which were anything but charming as atmos- 
pheres to be driven through. We were soon beyond 
them, however, and ere long comfortably engaged in as- 
certaining the merits of a Fusieda luncheon in a very 
good native inn or hotel. This matter sufficiently de- 
termined to the satisfaction of all, we were speedily en 
route again, and instead of skirting the hills to the south- 
wards, as I expected, turned towards the hills in front. 
After passing through a village at their base, and racing 
down a valley between them, we ascended a winding or 
alternating roadway, which terminated at the entrance of a 
tunnel through the mountain. This tunnel, much resem- 
bling that of Pozzuoli, near Naples, and lighted, like it, 
with lamps at intervals, was about a third of a mile in 
length. It terminated in a beautiful valley, down which 
the road plunged, and up which — as up the steep roads of 
the morning, by the bye — several kagos were being borne, 
the travellers usually walking to spare the carrying ninsokus^ 
as this class of labourers a.nd jinri^-sha men are called. After 
a few miles of further travelling, we saw before, us the 
roofs of a large town, and between them and us the bed of 
another large river, which I rightly took to be the Abegawa, 
the town or city beyond being the terminus of our day's 
run, Shidzuoka, 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 67 

This town is the most notable of all in relation to the 
great Tokugawa family, which gave to Japan its Shoguns 
and Tycoons from the year 1603 down to 1868, when the 
system of government by a Shogun was brought to an end. 
The first of the Tokugawa Shoguns, lyeyasu, finally took 
up his residence in Shidzuoka after his great victory over 
his rivals at Sekigahara, near Lake Biwa — a victory which 
determined the government and fate of Japan from the be- 
ginning of the Seventeenth Century onwards to our own 
day. Here at Shidzuoka, then known as Sumpu, lyeyasu 
had long before built him a great castle, and resided in it. 
He now returned to it, and left it again only for two short 
intervals, to suppress rebellious attempts. Here he devoted 
himself mainly to literature, collecting and preserving so 
many old manuscripts, and otherwise so exerting himself 
that it is said to be largely due to him that much of the 
ancient Japanese literature is now in existence. 

As the first, so the last of the Tokugawa Tycoons has 
made Shidzuoka his place of residence, for here now^ re- 
sides the dethroned Tycoon, who lives in great privacy and 
simplicity. He sees but few people, frankly acknowledg- 
ing that the reassertion of the Mikado's authority is 
just. 

Leaving Shidzuoka early on the morning of the i6th of 
March, we pursued our course eastward, lunching at Kam- 
bara, and staying for the next night at Mishima. Our 
route lay for several hours with Fujiyama on our left and 

1 1880. 



68 JAPAN 

the sea on our right, and as the day was one of rare fine- 
ness, and of very remarkable atmospheric clearness, we 
enjoyed scenery which is not to be surpassed in the world. 
For some hours the whole 13,000 feet of Fujiyama was 
without the faintest phantom of a cloud — an almost un- 
precedented fact, according to the local statements made to 
us — and when clouds formed they merely constituted a sort 
of experimental display, as if the governor of the district 
had carried his courtesy to the length of showing us how 
prettily clouds can be produced up there out of nothing ; 
how much softer than any silk, and how much more trans- 
parent than any gauze, they can be woven when sunbeams 
interlace with vapours of snow ; how slowly they can sail 
past the steadfast mountain front, and quicken their speed 
as they pass around and beyond it ; with what consummate 
art they can veil any blemish on the mountain's beauty, 
and how, by deepening their own shade and darkening 
their own shadows, they can intensify by contrast even the 
cold, white, solid-seeming splendour of the mountain itself. 
As for the sea, as it lay lake-like but vast in the beautiful 
Suruga Bay, sparkling in a setting of coloured mountains, 
its solicitations to the eye were urgent and perpetual. A 
morning or two before it seemed to fairly foam with 
brightness ; but on this occasion its brightness was more 
definite and intense, more like one might expect it to ap- 
pear if its whole surface were surging with liquid diamonds. 
I have no power to describe the combined beauty of the 
mountain on the one hand and the sea on the other, on this 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 69 

middle day of March ; but to assist the reader in imaging 
it, I ought to repeat that for hours we had full before us 
the immense sweep of this huge tower of silver and blue, 
from the summit, high in heaven, clear down to the spark- 
ling sea. O for the skill of some more than mortal artist 
with which to fix before the eye this glorious picture ! — 
and indeed those many pictures of this hallowed mountain 
as it appeared from our ever-shifting points of view 
throughout the day. 

Where a branch of Suruga Bay comes close up to the 
hills, the Tokaido passing along the strand between, stands 
the beautiful Buddhist (Zen-Shu) temple of Seikenji (" Clear 
View Temple ") — beautiful for its position overlooking the 
bay and the mountains beyond ; beautiful for its buildings, 
which are among the best that we have seen of the purely 
Japanese type ; and beautiful for its garden at the back, 
formed from the mountain side, with a small natural torrent 
pouring down it, and with trees of great variety scattered in 
a highly picturesque manner over its rocky amphitheatre. 
In front of this temple is a plum-tree, planted by the hand 
of the great lyeyasu nearly three hundred years ago. The 
residential buildings of the temple were in part rebuilt 
eleven years ago,^ and have been occupied for a short time 
by the now reigning Mikado, who once stayed here on ac- 
count of the salubrity of the place. We halted and visited 
this temple, the chief priest kindly showing us its treasures 
among which were letters of lyeyasu and Hideyoshi. 

' i88q 



70 JAPAN 

Most of the villages passed through on the day now 
under notice were on or near to the shore of Suruga Bay, 
along which the Tokaido sweeps, and the villagers were 
largely occupied in drying fish for manure. There was 
also carried on in favourable places, and on a large scale 
the method of obtaining salt from the sea, by throwing sea- 
water over prepared beds of salt, and allowing the sun's heat 
to evaporate the water and leave the salt. The largest 
river crossed was Fuji-kawa which runs down from the 
inland mountains past the western side of Fujiyama, en- 
tering the sea close to the base of that mountain. Its main 
channel is about seventy miles long. When we passed it 
was flowing with swiftness through one main channel of suf- 
ficient width to compel us to cross in ferry-boats in the 
absence of a bridge, but the bed of the river, which must be 
nearly two miles wide, was dry. Three times a year the 
whole of the broad bed is covered with the torrent. The 
Tokaido proper crosses this river by a bridge much higher 
up ; but we took a short cut, and with it a very bad sandy 
road, so that I doubt if we gained anything in time. 

It was five o'clock before we arrived at Mishima, having 
visited some pleasant gardens at Hara, after lunching at 
Kambara. Immediately after alighting from our jinriki- 
shas^ in which we had been with brief intervals for nearly 
ten hours, we proceeded to visit the great Shinto temple of 
Mishima Gengin, at the invitation of the chief priest, 
Mayada, a temple so ancient as regards its foundation that 
no one knows when it was founded, and a chief priest so 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 71 

pleasant that I do not wish to meet a pleasanter. This is 
the temple by which Japanese pledge themselvies when they 
wish to make a very solemn and binding engagement. 
Two of the junior priests received us at the outer Tori-i and 
led us to the temple proper, where the chief priest awaited 
us with the temple band playing. Some of us went through 
the simply ceremony of washing the hands and putting a 
branch of the sacred tree into its place. We then ex- 
amined the treasures of the temple, including a very ancient 
vase, said to belong to the period of the gods, — dating, that 
is, from before the reign of Jimmu-Tenno, the first Mikado, 
which commenced, according to the histories, six hundred 
and sixty years before Christ ; an imperial order or warrant 
to the temple from the empress Gensho, written nearly twelve 
hundred years ago ; likewise, numerous small articles which 
once belonged to Yoritomo and his mother (Twelfth Cen- 
tury), having been brought here from the palace of Kama- 
kura; a very ancient flute, known as the flute of ivory ; a 
sword which was used by the Daimio of Hizen in sub- 
duing the Christian Japanese ; and collections of other 
swords and of robes of distinction which have from time 
to time, during many centuries, been presented to the tem- 
ple, and many of which as the reader will suppose, were 
viewed with interest. The chief priest presented us with 
some of the " god's food " in the form of boxes of sweet- 
meats which had been offered to the god at the altar, and 
had remained there the usual time ; and likewise with a 
written description of the temple, and some of the simple 



72 JAPAN 

temple remembrances such as pilgrims take away with 
them. 

The next day our route lay over the Hakone Mountains, 
the pass of which, although broad and in the main of mod- 
erate gradients, is in places so steep, and everywhere paved 
with such large rough stones, as to be almost impracticable 
for jinriki-shas. The usual course is therefore to resort to 
the kago^ or light carriage borne on the shoulders of men. 

We had a very suitable day for crossing these Hakone 
Mountains, the atmosphere being clear and inclined to 
brightness, but with continuous screens of cloud to protect 
us from the fiercer heat and light of the sun's direct beams. 
We obtained as we ascended glorious views over the coun- 
try we were leaving from Fujiyama westward over the 
fruitful Shidzuoka Ken, and southward over the fine bay of 
Suruga and the Idzu hills and vales. The road is pillared 
on either side throughout with ancient pine-trees, that make 
it like a vast continuous cathedral aisle, but one unlike all 
human architecture in its ascents and descents, in the 
twisted, contorted earth grasping character of its column- 
pedestals, and in the shifting lights and shadows that stream 
through its rustling roof. Occasionally we heard the melo- 
dious notes of the uguisu^ a wood-bird much celebrated in 
the poetry of the country. It has a note like one of the 
best " phrases " of the nightingale, if the musical world 
will allow the expression ; but its range is limited. It is, 
however, a pretty though a brief bit of nightingale melody, 
and is sufficient of itself to make answer to those who say 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 73 

that bird-song has been omitted altogether from the delights 
of Japan.^ The ugutsu is said by the poets " to come war- 
bling with the plum-blossom." And as one is here speak- 
ing of birds, it may not be amiss to add that throughout 
most of the country, and more still throughout the towns of 
Japan of which I have had experience, there has been a 
marked abundance of hawks and eagles on the wing — these 
being, in fact, with wild ducks and wild geese, the birds 
most usually seen here. We observed on this road the proc- 
ess of preparing the bark of the koso for paper manufacture. 
There were also — if I may be allowed to vary the subject 
of my remarks with something like the rapidity with which 
the objects of observation varied on the roadside — numerous 
small shrines at intervals, and occasionally a rough monu- 
mental tablet to the memory of some long-deceased person 
of eminence. It was touching to note that here, high up 
on this mountain road, the memory of persons who had 
been dead for centuries was kept green still by a living hand 
placing before the stone in a bit of bamboo cane, a branch 
of fresh spring verdure. 



1 Since writing the above I have been looking over the proof of a paper 
by my friend Capt. Hawes, of Tokio, descriptive of a tour made by him 
in the interior of Japan, in which I find a similar view stated. After de- 
scribing the delicious perfume of the air as not unlike the fragrance of the 
meadow-sweet at home, he adds : " This combined with the clear note of 
the cuckoo, which sounded pleasantly through the woods, the warble of 
the nightingale, and the harsher song of the jay, which were heard all 
around, does certainly rather upset the theory of some writers, who assert 
that ' Japan is a country in which the birds do not sing and the flowers 
have no smell.' " 



74 JAPAN 

Our hard walk over the mountain was relieved by fre- 
quent stoppages for rest and the slight but welcome refresh- 
ment of a cup of Japanese tea. There were numerous tea- 
houses by the way, and at any of them this could be got ; 
but having the honour of travelling with a cabinet minister 
of the country, and one of the most thoughtful and kindly 
of hosts, our necessities had all been anticipated by his offi- 
cers, or by those of the Ken or county. A long way up 
the mountain we halted at a spot whence the view west- 
ward was thought to be the finest on the pass, and where 
consequently a little view house had been erected for his Maj- 
esty the emperor on his journey already mentioned. Our 
view of the great solitary king of mountains, Fuji, was al- 
ready, by our change of position, getting seriously compro- 
mised by other mountains intervening, and he had donned a 
sort of helmet or crown of cloud ; a little later he became 
like our own King Arthur, on the night of his final leave- 
taking from the queen, for the rolling vapour 

" Enwound him fold by fold, and made him grey, 
And greyer, till himself became as mist," 

and he was seen no more before the close of our journey to 
the capital. 

Soon after the descent commenced we reached the di- 
viding line between the Kens of Shidzuoka and Kanagawa, 
which was notified by notice-posts, and was further marked 
in the present instance by a change of police. After chang- 
ing guard and commencing the descent towards Hakone, 



THE GREAT TOKAIDO ROAD 75 

we came upon a fine view of the pretty little lake of that 
name, which has an area of three and a half square miles, 
and upon the bank of which stands the village. 

In passing out of Hakone we saw the sight of old To- 
kaido gate, and the remains of the gate buildings. In the 
days of the Tycoons this Tokaido high road was blocked 
by three defensible gates, which people were allowed through 
only with passports. These gates were known as seki, and 
appear to have been kept with great care down to the close 
of the Tycoon's government, as I have heard from those 
who travelled over the Tokaido in comparatively recent 
times of the difficulties experienced in getting quickly 
through the gates, and of the insistence of those in charge 
upon all passengers, even the sick and weak, alighting from 
their kagos to pass through. 

The road beyond the old Hakone gate, going eastwards 
(as we were), rises again occasionally, but to no very great 
extent — if my observation from a yama-kago^ in a nearly 
horizontal position may be trusted — but there were long de- 
scents, with many very steep and winding places, to be 
made before our destination, Yumoto, was reached. The 
scenery was fine, and for the greater part wooded, with a 
torrent tumbling down the valley, and the hedges enlivened 
by violets and by a variegated bamboo plant with green and 
yellow in each stem and leaf. 

From Fuji-sawa to Kanagawa the distance is over fifteen 
English miles : we travelled it in exactly two hours, or at 
the rate of over seven and a half miles an hour, although 



76 JAPAN 

this part of the journey included the most and worst of the 
hills, and the worst part of the road. On a smooth good 
road, such as the Tokaido often is beyond the Hakone 
Mountains, and where there are but few towns upon it, the 
jinriki-sha men frequently ran us along at eight miles per 
hour. I may add that hearing, as I had often done, of the 
excellence of this great highway between what were for- 
merly the capitals of the Mikado and the Tycoon, I was 
quite astonished at the state in which I saw it in most of 
the towns and villages through which it passed. 

But whether the Tokaido be good or bad, our journey 
upon it was now over. 



TOKIO 

FREDERIC H. BALFOUR 

WHETHER it is the largest city in the world I 
do not know — probably not ; but it is larger 
than London,^ which covers only sixty-four 
square miles, while Tokio covers a hundred. In fact, it is 
less a city, as we understand the word, than a huge, strag- 
gling, beautiful village, or rather, perhaps, a group of vil- 
lages ; for often you may find yourself in some green, 
rural spot, and imagine that you have reached the country, 
only to turn the corner, and lo ! you are in a bustling street 
again. There is a story, for the truth of which I do not 
vouch, that an American once got into a. jinriki-sha^ and was 
pulled about for a week, trying to find Tokio. He gave it 
up at last, persuaded that there was no such place. Others, 
however, have been more successful. I was myself, and I 
have no hesitation in saying that, in my opinion, Tokio is 
one of the most peculiar and most beautiful cities in the 
world. True, when you get out at Shinbashi Terminus, 
its beauty does not strike you. In front stretches the great 
main street — part of a thoroughfare three hundred miles 
long, known as the Tokaido — lined with shops of all sorts, 
trams, omnibuses, zndjinnki-shas careering hither and thither, 

1 1894. 
77 - 



78 JAPAN 

this way and that ; newspaper offices covered with posters ; 
telegraph and telephone wires over your head ; the chim- 
neys of great factories smoking here and there; and life, 
business, and bustle all around. This is interesting, but it 
is not picturesque. Follow the street, however, for about 
three miles, and you will come to one of the great play- 
grounds of the metropolis, Ueno Park ; and here, in addi- 
tion to magnificent cryptomerias, lovely sylvan glades, 
gorgeous old temples to dead Shogun, and a big, though I 
am sorry to say exceedingly ugly, Buddha — the only ugly 
one I have ever seen — you will find a switchback railway, 
numberless restaurants and tea-houses, a beautiful Zoolog- 
ical Garden, a School of Art, a School of Music, a Public 
Library, a Museum, a Fine Art Exhibition, and many 
other resorts of pleasure and instruction. Or, if you bend 
your steps inland from the bay, you come upon the three 
great concentric moats, encircling the Imperial Palace, with 
their grand grassy slopes crowned with immemorial pine- 
trees . growing in all sorts of contorted shapes ; the remains 
of ancient yashiki^ or Daimios' palaces; Shiba Park, with 
its precipitous hills, deep shady groves, and temples of pe- 
culiar sanctity; broad, high, undulating roads, which wind 
upward in the bright sunlight like the pathways in some 
theological allegory ; palaces again, standing in ornamental 
grounds, and hidden by gigantic trees ; the modern resi- 
dences of Imperial Princes and members of the nobility, all 
handsomely-appointed mansions that would not discredit 
Park Lane ; and then, here, there, and everywhere, abrupt 



TOKIO 79 

clifFs or bluffs, richly wooded, commanding extensive 
views, and topped by some pleasant suburban villa sur- 
rounded by an undulating lawn. A little further yet, and 
you find yourself in the country, in good earnest ; strolling 
through lanes like the lanes of Devonshire ; a yellow corn- 
field here, a stretch of blue-green rice-fields there, so much 
foliage that you can never get quite as good a view as you 
would like ; the pleasant throbbing of a water-mill in your 
ears, and a general sensation of smiling, sunny peace. 
Let us suppose it is November. The foliage presents 
great masses of rich colouring — green, golden, crimson, 
and bronze ; the hawk sails, noiseless and graceful, through 
the air; the feathery bamboo copse in which you stand 
waves almost imperceptibly in the breeze ; the bees hum 
slumberously among the tea-plants ; ever and anon the 
mellow tones of a temple-bell come booming from some 
neighbouring country shrine ; the sky is as clear and as 
blue as a great sapphire, and the whole world seems to lie 
basking in a flood of golden heat. 

Naturally it is only residents who see this side of Tokio. 
The " globe-trotter " lives in one of the hotels, and devotes 
his attention to what may be called the show-places of the 
town — the curio-shops, the University, the principal tem- 
ples, and a few well-known restaurants. These are all in- 
teresting in their way, but the true charm of Tokio, to me, 
lies in its gardens and its rural districts. There is one 
garden that is worthy of special mention. Close to the 
entrance there is a big, unsightly Arsenal, the red-brick 



8o JAPAN 

chimney of which belches out volumes of thick black 
smoke. Within five seconds after you have passed through 
the gate you find yourself in u^hat I can only describe as a 
stretch of wild Highland scenery — glens, groves, waterfalls, 
and all complete. The Korakuen is one of the glories of 
Tokio, and a favourite place for garden parties. The first 
time I went there was when the young Marquis Kuroda, 
formerly Prince of Fuknoka, gave a great entertainment to 
celebrate the completion of his political majority. Part of 
it is so arranged as to represent in miniature, the stretch of 
country between the capital and Kioto, including Fujiyama 
and Lake Biwa. The whole was laid out by an eminent 
Chinese refugee nearly three hundred years ago. 

Now, of course, it is impossible to describe Tokio in a 
few score of lines, and, of course, I do not pretend to have 
done it. All I have tried to do is to give you a general 
idea of the place, an impressionist daub ; not a pre-Raphael- 
ite, highly finished picture. There are many streets that 
are narrow and squalid, and- rather smelly ; there are disa- 
greeable sights, too ; for the Japanese cleanliness of which 
we hear so much is, in my opinion, rather a legend ; and 
the weather, at certain seasons of the year, is frankly de- 
testable. But the charms of the place outweigh its draw- 
backs. I lived for over two years in a bungalow on the top 
of Bird-rest Hill, in the suburban ward of Azabu ; and 
from the height of my hanging-garden I looked over a sec- 
tion of the city that spread beneath me, framed in by the 
thick foliage of Shiba Park on one side, and Mita Hill on 



TOKIO 81 

the other ; the blue waters of the bay, flecked by scores of 
white-sailed fishing-boats, sparkling in the middle distance, 
and the mountains showing lavendar-grey beyond. To 
others, Tokio may be a dull, uninteresting place. To me, 
it is one of the very few places that I know of in the solar 
system worth living in. 



A 



THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 

JUDITH GAUTIER 

SAKUSA is dedicated to Kwannon, the Chinese 
and Japanese Madonna, the charming Goddess of 
Mercy, who descended into hell, and by the 
fervour of her compassion, delivered the condemned and 
showered upon them a rain of flowers. 

Stone lanterns of a very peculiar form are placed in front 
of the monumental gate which gives access to the precincts 
of the temple. To go through this you pass under a gigantic 
round lantern, ornamented with Chinese characters, which 
hangs between two cylindrical lanterns. Under the gate, 
on the right and left, there rise the Two Kings, guardians 
of the gate. 

Beyond the gate, you walk on through wide avenues, 
paved with stones and bordered with many rows of cedars 
hundreds of years old, under which are grouped booths 
bright with a medley of standards, ornamented with lanterns 
and banners and filled with all kinds of charming bibelots 
and beautifully dressed dolls : it is the most animated kind 
of a kermess^ with its mountebanks, its theatres, its fortune- 
tellers, and all kinds of entertainments. 

This perpetual festival that surrounds the temple does 
not seem very favourable to the encouragement of pious 

32 



THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 83 

ideas ; however, as you advance, and, in the midst of the 
cedars, the imposing mass of the temple appears, of a deep 
red with enormous roofs turning up at the edges and when 
you see that tower with its five stages springing towards 
the sky with such an extraordinary and novel aspect, you 
are truly seized with a respectful emotion. 

Before going into the temple, you are required to wash 
your hands and your mouth in a great stone trough, with 
the aid of a wooden dipper with a long handle that is float- 
ing on the water. 

As soon as you have gone through the gate of the vesti- 
bule, you find yourself in a reposeful and mysterious 
shadow in the midst of a tumult of voices and the rustling 
of the wings of clouds of pigeons that inhabit the temple. 
You stop at the vestibule to make some purchases from 
the various kinds of merchants who are installed there ; 
first, a package of tiny rings of perfumed paste to burn in 
honour of the gods ; then, from the merchants who are 
squatting on their heels, little saucers of terra cotta filled 
with rice for the sacred pigeons. To the left, in a pen 
with lacquered walls, you see a pigmy horse, entirely white 
with pale eyes ; it is an Albino horse consecrated to 
Kwannon. Upon his back is a symbolical piece of paper 
cut out nearly in the form of a cross and held on by strips 
of silk. They also sell you something to off'er to the 
gentle Albino : some cooked peas in a terra cotta plate. 

The interior of the temple consists of one single hall, 
tall and immense, with a forest of round columns painted 



84 JAPAN 

red, the capitals of which are lost in the shadows of the 
ceiling. In the background the altar appears in a warm 
reflection of gold and glimmering lights. Gigantic Bud- 
dhas of gilded wood with half closed eyes and faint smiles 
are vaguely perceived behind the great blind that hangs 
down before them — a trellis of iron worked like lace — and 
surrounded by banners, lanterns, lamps and magnificent 
bouquets of flowers of gilded metal. 

Each one of the faithful throws his scented rings into 
a gigantic bronze incense-burner, whose open-worked 
cover is ornamented with the signs of the zodiac and 
terminated by a chimaerical lion. Tiny threads of the 
blue smoke spring from the holes and mount as they 
quiver and unfold into diaphanous lilies which soon drop 
their leaves and make a pale fog high above in the 
mysterious shadow. This fog of perfumes renders still 
more confused those singular objects that hang about and 
scintillate from various heights : there are large round dais 
with splendid fringes of silk, fantastic beasts embroidered 
upon banners upon which you perceive shining scales of 
gold, lanterns of all forms upon which are painted black 
dragons or large Chinese letters, streamers and waving 
strips of silk ornamented with braids and tassels, inscriptions 
and maxims painted or embroidered, and other unfamiliar 
objects. 

From the base to the inaccessible heights, the walls are 
entirely covered with pictures of all kinds painted on satin, 
gauze and paper, carved in wood, marble, ivory, and 



THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 85 

mother-of-pearl, or magnificently embroidered upon silk or 
velvet. They represent scenes in the lives of saints, 
celebrated legends, terrible descriptions of the sufferings 
in hell or simply the images of gods and goddesses, 
particularly Kwannon, the gentle protectress of the temple. 
There are some beautiful sabres vi^ith open-worked guards, 
or carved wooden sabres, or formed of coins strung 
together. With these pieces of copper they also form 
Chinese characters : the name Amida occurs the most 
frequently. 

Bonzes wander about among the crowds, or remain on 
the ground before the chapels by the side of the relics. 
All have their heads entirely shaved and wear robes with 
sleeves of the most extraordinary size. They give to the 
faithful whatever pious information they desire, or conduct 
them to the saint whom they wish to honour. Some- 
times, at a given signal, they all go to the high altar, and, 
ranging themselves around an old bonze in his sacerdotal 
robes, they chant prayers while accompanying themselves 
on several instruments that make a shrill music. 

On every side the devotees are kneeling upon the 
pavement before their chosen altar ; they mutter their 
prayers aloud, and every now and then clap their hands 
as if they were applauding. To the right of the central 
altar, the statue of a saint, who is greatly venerated as he 
has the power of curing all illness, attracts many people. 
This personage in red lacquered wood, and about the size 
of a little boy, is seated in an arm-chair. He represents 



86 JAPAN 

Bindzuru one of Buddha's first six disciples. Ah, he is 
not very beautiful, this Bindzuru : he has neither form nor 
features on account of the continual friction of the 
believers ; for you must rub the ailing parts of the body 
against the statue in order to accomplish the miracle. He 
ought to cure the sick, this poor saint ! He ought to be 
kindly treated, for he is himself quite ill : he looks like a 
chocolate man half sucked. A constant noise is heard 
above the murmur of the crovi^d ; it is the shock of pieces 
of money that are falling without interruption in the alms- 
chest, a great square box about three metres long and one 
metre wide and standing under a bamboo trellis. And in 
the midst of all this noise, the pretty children run about 
upon the sonorous stones with gentle laughter, or perhaps 
stopping, as if in ecstasy, at the foot of a column, throw 
rice to the sacred pigeons. 

Outside the temple there are still a thousand things to 
see. All the pleasures are collected in this enclosure : 
apart from the numerous chapels, it contains a circus, 
theatres, galleries for archery, and countless tea-houses 
where the young and elegant people of the city have de- 
lightful parties. 

There is everything in the enclosure of Asakusa. Tokio 
has its Museum there. About forty pictures are arranged, 
to the left of the great temple in a gallery ; they are called 
I-ki-n'ine-gnio^ " the living dolls," and these wax dolls are so 
expressive that you might easily believe they were living 
pictures. All the scenes are represented that relate to 



THE TEMPLE OF ASAKUSA 87 

the miracles due to the inexhaustible kindness of Kwan- 
non. 

But there are still things that are worthy of being seen in 
the territory of Asakusa, among others, the gardens and the 
nurseries, taken care of by skilful horticulturists. All kinds 
of dwarf trees appear here, by what process obtained I do 
not know : cedars which are planted in porcelain jars, doll 
pines, tiny peach-trees, bamboos fine as knitting-needles ; 
then carpets of delicate grass like green feathers, grassy 
plants that bristle with prickles and resemble wicked beasts, 
and a magnificent variety of rare flowers : rose-coloured, 
purple and white peonies as large as cabbages ; chrysanthe- 
mums that open out as big as plates. And the fruit-trees, 
those marvels whose blossoming at Spring-tide is the de- 
light of poets. All varieties of lemon, peach and cherry- 
trees, and above all the incomparable plum, whose beauty 
cannot be imagined, which blooms in the depths of winter 
under the snow and whose flowers are more deliciously 
scented than roses. 

There is as yet no lift in the Five-storied Pagoda, and 
the way up is very steep by a zigzag stairway, where it is 
very dark ; but you are well repaid for your trouble when you 
finally emerge in the open air on the last platform. 

An ocean of grey roofs, which waves, waves to the very 
edge of the horizon, appears to you, broken by islands of 
verdure and great clear spaces ; mirrors which confuse 
everything as if pieces of the sky had fallen upon the earth 
and lead on to infinite distances j these are the rivers, the 



88 JAPAN 

ponds and the canals. But the glance is suddenly attracted 
and fixed far away from all this by the extraordinary moun- 
tain, of which I can never say enough : the surprising, the 
marvellous, the unique Fujiyama ! There appears over 
yonder towards the south-west a gigantic and solitary cone, 
very tall, very pale and rosy, with bluish shadows over it 
like wrinkles. The base is wreathed in mists, and it looks 
therefore as if it were suspended in the air and supported 
by the clouds. 




BUDDHAS, ASAKUSA. 



A 



THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 

AIME HUMBERT 

T the present time we find at Kamakoura the Pan- 
theon of the glories of Japan. It is composed 
of a majestic collection of sacred buildings which 
have always been spared by the fury of civil war. They 
are placed under the invocation of Hatchiman, one of 
the great national Kamis. Hatchiman belongs to the 
heroic period of the Empire of the Mikados. His mother 
was the Empress Zingou, who effected the conquest of 
the three kingdoms of Korea, and to whom divine honours 
are rendered. Each year, on the ninth day of the ninth 
month, a solemn procession to the tomb which is conse- 
crated to her at Fousimi, in the country of Yamasiro, com- 
memorates her glorious deeds. Zingou herself surnamed 
her son Fatsman, " the eight banners," in consequence of 
a sign which appeared in the heavens at the birth of the 
child. Thanks to the education which she gave him, she 
made him the bravest of her soldiers and the most skilful 
of her generals. When she had attained the age of one 
hundred years, she transmitted the sceptre and crown of the 
Mikados to her son, in the year 270 of our era. He was 
then seventy-one years old. Under the name of Woozin 
he reigned gloriously for forty-three years, and was raised, 

89 



go JAPAN 

after his death, to the rank of a protecting genius of the 
Empire. He is especially revered as the patron of soldiers. 
In the annual y?/^^ dedicated to him, Japan celebrates the 
memory of the heroes who have died for their country. 
The popular processions which take place on this occasion 
revive the ancient pomps of Kami worship. Even the 
horses formerly destined for sacrifice are among the cortege ; 
but instead of being immolated, they are turned loose on the 
race-course. 

Most of the great cities of Japan possess a Temple of 
Hatchiman. That of Kamakoura is distinguished above 
ail the others by the trophies which it contains. Two vast 
buildings are required for the display of this national wealth. 
There, it is said, are preserved the spoils of the Korean and 
the Mongol invasions, also objects taken from the Portu- 
guese Colonies, and the Christian communities of Japan at 
the epoch when the Portuguese were expelled, and the Jap- 
anese Christians were exterminated by order of the Shoguns. 

No European has ever yet been permitted to view the 
trophies of Kamakoura. 

While all European states like to display the treasures 
which they have respectively seized or won in their fron- 
tier and dynastic wars, Japan hides all monuments of its 
military glory from foreigners. They are kept in reserve, 
like a family treasure, in venerable sanctuaries, to which no 
profane feet ever find access. 

On approaching the Temple of Hatchiman, we per- 
ceived that our arrival had been announced, and that 



THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 91 

the bonzes were closing the shutters of their treasure- 
house. 

The Temples of Hatchiman are approached by long 
lines of those great cedar-trees which form the avenues to 
all places of worship in Japan. As we advance along the 
avenue on the Kanagawa side, chapels multiply themselves 
along the road, and to the left, upon the sacred hills, we 
also come in sight of the oratories and commemorative 
stones which mark the stations of the processions ; on the 
right the horizon is closed by the mountain, with its grottos, 
its streams, and its pine groves. After we have crossed 
the river by a line wooden bridge, we find ourselves sud- 
denly at the entrance of another alley, which leads from 
the sea-side, and occupies a large street. This is the prin- 
cipal avenue, intersected by three gigantic Tori-i^ and it 
opens on the grand square in front of the chief staircase 
of the main building of the Temple. The precinct of the 
sacred place extends into the street, and is surrounded on 
three sides by a low wall of solid masonry, surmounted by a 
barrier of wood painted black and red. Two steps lead to 
the first level. There is nothing to be seen there but the 
houses of the bonzes, arranged like the side-scenes of a 
theatre, amid trees planted along the barrier-wall, with two 
great oval ponds occupying the centre of the square. They 
are connected with each other by a large canal crossed by 
two parallel bridges, each equally remarkable in its way. 
That on the right is of white granite, and it describes an 
almost perfect semicircle, so that when one sees it for the 



92 JAPAN 

first time one supposes that it is intended for some sort of 
geometrical exercise; but I suppose that it is in reality a 
bridge of honour reserved for the gods and the good genii 
who come to visit the Temple. The bridge on the left is 
quite flat, constructed of wood covered with red lacquer, 
with balusters and other ornaments in old polished copper. 
The pond crossed by the stone bridge is covered with mag- 
nificent white lotus flowers, — the pond crossed by the 
wooden bridge with red lotus flowers. Among the leaves 
of the flowers we saw numbers of fish, some red and others 
like mother of pearl, with glittering fins, swimming about 
in waters of crystal clearness. The black tortoise glides 
among the great water-plants and clings to their stems. 

After having thoroughly enjoyed this most attractive 
spectacle, we go on towards the second enclosure. It is 
raised a few steps higher than the first, and, as it is pro- 
tected by an additional sanctity, it is only to be approached 
through the gate of the divme guardians of the sanctuary. 
This building, which stands opposite the bridges, contains 
two monstrous idols, placed side by side in the centre of 
the edifice. They are sculptured in wood, and are covered 
from head to foot with a thick coating of vermilion. Their 
grinning faces and their enormous busts are spotted all 
over with innumerable pieces of chewed paper, which the 
native visitors throw at them when passing, without any 
more formality than would be used by a number of school- 
boys out for a holiday. Nevertheless, it is considered a 
very serious act on the part of the pilgrims. It is the 



THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 93 

means by which they make the prayer written on the sheet 
of chewed paper reach its address, and when they wish to 
recommend anything to the gods very strongly indeed, they 
bring as an offering a pair of straw slippers plaited with 
regard to the size of the feet of the Colossus, and hang 
them on the iron railings within which the statues are en- 
closed. Articles of this kind, suspended by thousands to 
the bars, remain there until they fall away in time, and it 
may be supposed that this curious ornamentation is any- 
thing but beautiful. 

Here a lay brother of the bonzes approached us, and his 
interested views were easily enough detected by his bear- 
ing. We hastened to assure him that we required nothing 
from his good offices, except access to an enclosed building. 
With a shake of his head, so as to make us understand that 
we were asking for an impossibility, he simply set himself 
to follow us about with the mechanical precision of a 
subaltern. He was quite superfluous, but we did not allow 
his presence to interfere with our admiration. A high 
terrace, reached by a long stone staircase, surmounted the 
second enclosure. It is sustained by a Cyclopean wall, and 
in its turn supports the principal Temple as well as the 
habitations of the bonzes. The grey roofs of all these dif- 
ferent buildings stand out against the sombre forest of 
cedars and pines. On the left are the buildings of the 
Treasury ; one of them has a pyramidal roof surmounted 
by a turret of bronze most elegantly worked. At the foot 
of the great terrace is the Chapel of the Ablutions. On 



94 JAPAN 

our right stands a tall pagoda, constructed on the principle 
of the Chinese pagodas, but in a more sober and severe 
style. The first stage, of a quadrangular form, is sup- 
ported by pillars ; the second stage consists of a vast cir- 
cular gallery, which, though extremely massive, seems to 
rest simply upon a pivot. A painted roof terminated by a 
tall spire of cast bronze, embellished with pendants of the 
same metal, completes the effect of this strange but exquis- 
itely proportioned building. 

All the doors of the building which I have enumerated 
are in good taste. The fine proportions, the rich brown 
colouring of the wood, which is almost the only material 
employed in their construction, is enhanced by a few touches 
of red and dragon green, and the effect of the whole is per- 
fect ; — add to the picture a frame of ancient trees and the 
extreme brilliancy of the sky, for the atmosphere of Japan 
is the most transparent in the world. 

We went beyond the pagoda to visit a bell-tower, where 
we were shown a large bell beautifully engraved, and an 
oratory on each side containing three golden images, a large 
one in the centre and two small ones on either side. Each 
was surrounded by a nimbus. 

We then went to see the Daiboudhs, which is the won- 
der of Kamakoura. This building is dedicated to the 
Daiboudhs, that is to say, to the great Buddha, and may be 
regarded as the most finished work of Japanese genius, 
from the double points of view of art and religious senti- 
ment. The Temple of Hatchiman had already given us a 



THE TEMPLE OF HATCHIMAN 95 

remarkable example of the use which native art makes of 
nature in producing that impression of religious majesty 
which in our northern climates is effected by Gothic archi- 
tecture. The Temple of Daiboudhs differs considerably 
from the first which we had seen. Instead of the great 
dimensions, instead of the illimitable space which seemed 
to stretch from portal to portal down to the sea, a solitary 
and mysterious retreat prepares the mind for some super- 
natural revelation. The road leads far away from every 
habitation ; in the direction of the mountain it winds 
about between hedges of tall shrubs. Finally, we see 
nothing before us but the high road, going up and up in 
the midst of foliage and flowers ; then it turns in a totally 
different direction, and all of a sudden, at the end of the 
alley, we perceive a gigantic brazen Divinity, squatting 
with joined hands, and the head slightly bent forward in an 
attitude of contemplative ecstasy. The involuntary 
amazement produced by the aspect of this great image soon 
gives place to admiration. There is an irresistible charm 
in the attitude of the Daiboudhs, as well as in the harmony 
of its proportions. The noble simplicity of its garments 
and the calm purity of its features are in perfect accord 
with the sentiment of serenity inspired by its presence. 
A grove, consisting of some beautiful groups of trees, 
forms the enclosure of the sacred place, whose silence and 
solitude are never disturbed. The small cell of the attend- 
ant priest can hardly be discerned amongst the foliage. 
The altar, on which a little incense is burning at the feet of 



96 JAPAN 

the Divinity, is composed of a small brass table orna- 
mented by two lotus vases of the same metal, and beautifully 
wrought. The steps of the altar are composed of large 
slabs forming regular lines. The blue of the sky, the deep 
shadow of the statue, the sombre colour of the brass, the 
brilliancy of the flowers, the varied verdure of the hedges 
and the groves, fill this solemn retreat with the richest ef- 
fect of light and colour. The idol of the Daiboudhs, with 
the platform that supports it, is twenty yards high. 



THE SHIBA TEMPLE 

CHRISTOPHER DRESSER 

SHIBA lies in the north-east quarter of Tokio. It is 
reached by a pleasant short drive from the railway 
station. The impression which I now receive upon 
first beholding the magnificent temples and shrines standing 
before me as I step from our carriage is most delightful. 
Buildings, so rich in colour, so beautiful in detail, so striking 
in symbolism, I have never before seen or dreamt of. Had 
a Gibbons been employed on the wood-carvings, had the 
colourist of the Alhambra done his utmost to add to forms, 
which in themselves are almost perfect, a new charm 
through the addition of pigments, and were the whole of 
such details subordinated to fitting places in a vast architec- 
tural edifice by the architects of the Parthenon, no more 
worthy eff^ect could be produced than that of the buildings 
on which my eyes now rest. 

The Temple of Shiba, like most of the large temples 
dedicated to the service of Buddhism, consisted of seven 
buildings, one of which may be regarded as more strictly in 
itself /^^ Temple, while another is in all cases a pagoda, — 
the pagoda bearing much the same relation to the Buddhist 
edifice that a spire does to a Christian church. Unfortu- 
nately the chief building of the seven has been lately (1882) 

97 



98 JAPAN 

burnt by, it is believed, revolutionary incendiaries, and I am 
informed that this building vi^as more beautiful than any now- 
remaining ; yet how any building could be more beautiful 
than those which have escaped, I am at a loss to under- 
stand. 

We walk through the courtyard inspecting the long rows 
of stone lanterns, and viewing the exteriors of the various 
buildings on which we find birds, flowers, water, and clouds 
carved with a tenderness and boldness scarcely to be sur- 
passed, and so coloured that each object retains its individ- 
ual beauty, while the various parts combine to produce an 
effect almost perfect. The art treatment of the natural ob- 
jects is semi-conventional, the carving is of the crispest, 
and the subjects are chosen with the view of symbolizing 
the power of the Buddhist's god over all created things. 

Shiba is not only a Buddhist shrine, but like our West- 
minster Abbey, is a resting-place for the mighty dead. Here 
five of Japan's great Shoguns (also called Tycoons) were 
buried, and the Shogun (who was practically the temporal 
ruler of Japan) was of the Buddhist faith, while the Mikado 
(whom we have described as the spiritual ruler) was of the 
Shinto religion. Shoguns found their resting-place in tombs 
of great beauty, while over the ashes of the Mikados are 
heaped mere mounds of earth. 

We are looking and wondering at all the loveliness out- 
spread before us when a shaven-headed priest comes for- 
ward to conduct us into the largest of the edifices which 
now remain. Before entering it we have to put off our 



THE SHIBA TEMPLE 99 

shoes. This it was right that we should do, were it only 
because the balcony to which the steps before us lead, and 
the floor of the temple itself, are of polished black lacquer. 
The surface of these floors may be compared with that of 
the best papier-mache tray that Wolverhampton ever 
made. 

There is little in the way of wall in connexion with either 
Japanese temples or houses ; but of the structure of their 
buildings more will be said when we come to consider their 
architecture. However, the building before us is a large en- 
closed space, covered by a massive roof, supported on up- 
rights, between which are what we may regard as movable 
shutters; — the columns and shutters forming the boundary 
of the building. The floor of the temple extends about six 
feet beyond the central enclosed part as a balcony, and it is 
this balcony which I have just mentioned as being bright 
black. The roof of the temple overhangs the balcony and 
protects it from the weather, while the constructive rafters 
and joists which support it are left fully exposed to view. 
Internally we have a ceiling of which the structural 
features are not visible. The ceiling is panelled out into 
small squares, and is decorated ; red, blue, green, white and 
gold being applied to it in all their intensity. 

It might be thought that such a system of colouring as this 
could only produce a coarse and vulgar effect ; but this is not 
so, for the overhanging roof which approaches within about 
four feet of the railing of the surrounding balcony does not 
permit the entrance of any excessive amount of light ; and 



l.ofC. 



loo JAPAN 

the light which ultimately reaches the ceiling is all re- 
flected, and that from a black floor. 

We are now taken by our shaven-headed priest to see the 
tombs of the Shoguns. In front of each tomb stands a 
square building or shrine, one of which by his orders is 
opened at both back and front, that we may look on the 
monument behind. 

I am so much pleased with the one temple which I have 
been permitted to enter, and my art enthusiasm has been 
already so fully kindled, that my desire to see the interior 
of these sacred shrines becomes almost irresistible ; but I am 
told that none but great officials can enter these sanctuaries, 
as each building contains the sacred name of the now deified 
Shogun whose remains are entombed behind. I believe that 
the holy father mistakes my enthusiastic admiration of the 
art of the edifice for religious enthusiasm, as he somewhat 
excitedly exclaims, " You are a great Shogun," and allows 
me to enter a building which ^ew^ if any, Europeans have 
up to this time been permitted to inspect. 

These shrines are as beautiful as the larger temples which 
we have already seen, and their details are as perfectly 
wrought. But as I yet fail to comprehend the object of 
these buildings, for what the sacred name of a deceased 
Shogun may be, I do not understand. Ultimate inquiry led 
me to see ^hat throughout Japan there" is a strange con- 
fusion of Buddhism and Shintoism ; for while Shintoism 
deifies heroes. Buddhism, in its purity, does nothing of the 
kind. Nevertheless, as the Mikado, while yet regarded a§ 



THE SHIBA TEMPLE loi 

the God incarnate of the Shinto Church, offers in public on 
certain days of the year prayers for his people at certain 
Buddhist shrines, it is not to be wondered at that the lead- 
ing sanctuaries of Japan should betray a blending so incon- 
sistent. 

Upon the death of a famous Japanese, be he daimio 
(baron), hero, benefactor, or Shogun, he is exalted to the 
rank of a god, when his name in the god world is allotted to 
him. This name, sacred and unpronounceable by mortal 
lips, is inscribed on a tablet of about two feet in length by four 
inches in breadth ; and it is this god name which the shrines 
in front of the Shogun's tombs are intended to encase and 
preserve. Every precaution is taken to insure the safety of 
these tablets, as in the belief of the Japanese the gravest 
calamities might befall the nation if any should be lost or 
destroyed. 

On this memorable day, which will always be a " red 
letter day " in my history, I learnt many facts of deep in- 
terest, and I have certainly beheld, enshrined in cryptomerias 
and other cone-bearing trees of vast proportions, an amount 
of architectural beauty such as I have never before seen. 



IN YOKOHAMA 

L AFC AD 10 HEARN 

THE first charm of Japan is as intangible and 
volatile as a perfume. It began for me with my 
first kuruma ride out of the European quarter of 
Yokohama into the Japanese town ; and so much as I can 
recall of it is hereafter set down. 

It is with the delicious surprise of the first journey 
through Japanese streets — unable to make one's kuruma 
runner understand anything but gestures, frantic gestures to 
roll on anywhere, everywhere, since all is unspeakably 
pleasurable and new — that one first receives the real sensation 
of being in the Orient, in this Far East so much read of, so 
long dreamed of, yet, as the eyes bear witness, heretofore all 
unknown. There is a romance even in the first full 
consciousness of this rather commonplace fact ; but for me 
this consciousness is transfigured inexpressibly by the 
divine beauty of the day. There is some charm unutterable 
in the morning air, cool with the coolness of Japanese 
spring and wind-waves from the snowy cone of Fuji; a 
charm perhaps due rather to softest lucidity than to any 
positive tone, — an atmospheric limpidity extraordinary, 
with only a suggestion of blue in it, through which the 
most distant objects appear focused with amazing sharp- 

I02 



IN YOKOHAMA 103 

ness. The sun is only pleasantly warm ; the jinrika-sha^ or 
kuruma^ is the most cosy little vehicle imaginable ; and the 
street-vistas, as seen above the dancing white mushroom- 
shaped hat of my sandalled runner, have an allurement of 
which I fancy that I could never weary. 

Elfish everything seems ; for everything as well as every- 
body is small, and queer, and mysterious : the little houses 
under their blue roofs, the little shop-fronts hung with blue, 
and the smiling little people in their blue costumes. The 
illusion is only broken by the occasional passing of a tall 
foreigner, and by divers shop-signs bearing announcements 
in absurd attempts in English. Nevertheless such discords 
only serve to emphasize reality ; they never materially 
lessen the fascination of the funny little streets. 

'Tis at first a delightfully odd confusion only, as you 
look down one of them, through an interminable flutter of 
flags and swaying of dark blue drapery, all made beautiful 
and mysterious with Japanese or Chinese lettering. For 
there are no immediately discernible laws of construction or 
decoration : each building seems to have a fantastic pretti- 
ness of its own ; nothing is exactly like anything else, and 
all is bewilderingly novel. But gradually, after an hour 
passed in the quarter, the eye begins to recognize in a 
vague way some general plan in the construction of these 
low, light, queerly-gabled wooden houses, mostly unpainted, 
with their first stories all open to the street, and thin strips of 
roofing sloping above each shop-front, like awnings, back to 
the miniature balconies of paper-screened second stories. 



104 



JAPAN 



You begin to understand the common plan of the tiny 
shops, with their matted floors well raised above the street 
level, and the general perpendicular arrangement of sign- 
lettering, whether undulating on drapery, or glimmering on 
gilded and lacquered signboards. You observe that the 
same rich, dark blue which dominates in popular costume 
rules also in shop draperies, though there is a sprinkling of 
other tints, — bright blue and white and red (no greens or 
yellows). And then you note also that the dresses of the 
labourers are lettered with the same wonderful lettering as 
the shop draperies. No arabesques could produce such an 
effect. As modified for decorative purposes these ideo- 
graphs have a speaking symmetry which no design without 
a meaning could possess. As they appear on the back of a 
workman's frock — pure white on dark blue — and large 
enough to be easily read at a great distance (indicating some 
guild or company of which the wearer is a member or 
employee), they give to the poor cheap garment a factitious 
appearance of splendour. 

" Tera e yuke ! " 

I have been obliged to return to the European hotel, — 
not because of the noon-meal, as I really begrudge myself 
the time necessary to eat it, but because I cannot make Cha 
understand that I want to visit a Buddhist temple. Now 
Cha understands J my landlord has uttered the mystical 
words, — 

" Tera e yuke I " 

A' few minutes of running along broad thoroughfares 



IN YOKOHAMA 105 

lined with gardens and costly ugly European buildings; 
then passing the bridge of a canal stocked with unpainted 
sharp-prowed craft of extraordinary construction, we again 
plunge into narrow, low, bright, pretty streets, — into 
another part of the Japanese city. And Cha runs at the 
top of his speed between more rows of little ark-shaped 
houses, narrower above than below ; between other unfa- 
miliar lines of little open shops. And always over the 
shops little strips of blue-tiled roof slope back to the paper- 
screened chamber of upper floors ; and from all the facades 
hang draperies dark-blue or white, or crimson, — foot- 
breadths of texture covered with beautiful Japanese letter- 
ing, white on blue, red on black, black on white. But all 
this flies by swiftly as a dream. Once more we cross a 
canal ; we rush up a narrow street rising to meet a hill ; 
and Cha, halting suddenly before an immense flight of broad 
stone steps, sets the shafts of his vehicle on the ground 
that I may dismount, and, pointing to the steps, exclaims, — 

I dismount, and ascend them, and, reaching a broad ter- 
race, find myself face to face with a wonderful gate, topped 
by a tilted, peaked, many-cornered Chinese roof. It is all 
strangely carven, this gate. Dragons are intertwined in a 
frieze above its open doors ; and the panels of the doors 
themselves are similarly sculptured ; and there are gargoyles 
— grotesque lion heads — protruding from the eaves. And 
the whole is grey, stone-coloured ; to me, nevertheless, the 
carvings do not seem to have the fixity of sculpture; all 



io6 JAPAN 

the snakeries and dragonries appear to undulate with a 
swimming motion, elusively, in eddyings as of water. 

I turn a moment to look back through the glorious light. 
Sea and sky mingle in the same beautiful pale clear blue. 
Below me the billowing of bluish roofs reaches to the verge 
of the unruffled bay on the right, and to the feet of the 
green wooded hills flanking the city on two sides. Beyond 
that semicircle of green hills rises a lofty range of serrated 
mountains, indigo silhouettes. And enormously high above 
the line of them towers an apparition indescribably lovely, 
— one solitary snowy cone, so filmily exquisite, so spiritu- 
ally white, that but for its immemorially familiar outline, 
one would surely deem it a shape of cloud. Invisible its 
base remains, being the same delicious tint as the sky : only 
above the eternal snow-line its dreamy cone appears, seem- 
ing to hang, the ghost of a peak, between the luminous 
land and the luminous heaven,— the sacred and matchless 
mountain, Fujiyama. 

" Tera ? " 

" Yes, Cha, tera." 

But only for a brief while do I traverse Japanese streets. 
The houses separate, become scattered along the feet of the 
hills : the city thins away through little valleys and vanishes 
at last behind. And we follow a curving road, overlooking 
the sea. Green hills slope steeply down to the edge of the 
way on the right ; on the left, far below, spreads a vast 
stretch of dun sand and salty pools to a line of surf so 
distant that it is discernible only as a moving white thread. 



IN YOKOHAMA 107 

The tide is out ; and thousands of cockle-gatherers are 
scattered over the sands, at such distances that their stoop- 
ing figures, dotting the glimmering sea-bed, appear no 
larger than gnats. And some are coming along the road 
before us, returning from their search with well-filled 
baskets, — girls with faces almost as rosy as the faces of 
English girls. 

As the jinriki-sha rattles on, the hills dominating the 
road grow higher. All at once Cha halts again before the 
steepest and loftiest flight of temple steps I have yet seen. 

I climb and climb, halting perforce betimes, to ease the 
violent aching of my quadriceps muscles ; reach the top 
completely out of breath ; and find myself between two 
lions of stone ; one showing his fangs, the other with jaws 
closed. Before me stands the temple, at the farther end 
of a small bare plateau surrounded on three sides by low 
cliffs, — a small temple, looking very old and grey. From 
a rocky height to the left of the building, a little cataract 
rumbles down into a pool, ringed in by a palisade. The 
voice of the water drowns all other sounds. A sharp wind 
is blowing from the ocean : the place is chill even in the 
sun, and bleak, and desolate, as if no prayer had been 
uttered in it for a hundred years. 

Cha taps and calls, while I take off my shoes upon the 
worn wooden steps of the temple ; and after a minute of 
waiting, we hear a muffled step approaching and a hollow 
cough behind the paper screens. They slide open ; and an 
old white-robed priest appears, and motions me, with a low 



io8 JAPAN 

bow, to enter. He has a kindly face ; and his smile of 
welcome seems to me one of the most exquisite I have 
ever been greeted with. Then he coughs again, so badly 
that I think if I ever come here another time, I shall ask 
for him in vain. 

I go in, feeling that soft, cushioned matting beneath my 
feet with which the floors of all Japanese buildings are 
covered. I pass the indispensable bell and lacquered read- 
ing-desk ; and before me I see other screens only, stretch- 
ing from floor to ceiling. The old man, still coughing, 
slides back one of these upon the right, and waves me into 
the dimness of an inner sanctuary, haunted by faint odours 
of incense. A colossal bronze lamp, with snarling gilded 
dragons coiled about its columnar stem, is the first object I 
discern ; and, in passing it, my shoulder sets ringing a fes- 
toon of little bells suspended from the lotus-shaped summit 
of it. Then I reach the altar, gropingly, unable yet to dis- 
tinguish forms clearly. But the priest, sliding back screen 
after screen, pours in light upon the gilded brasses and the 
inscriptions ; and I look for the image of the Deity, or 
presiding Spirit between the altar-groups of convoluted 
candelabra. And I see — only a mirror, a round, pale 
disk of polished metal and my own face therein, and 
behind this mockery of me a phantom of the far 
sea. 

Only a mirror ! Symbolizing what ? Illusion ? or that 
the Universe exists for us solely as the reflection of our own 
souls ? or the old Chinese teaching that we must seek the 



IN YOKOHAMA 109 

Buddha only in our own hearts ? Perhaps some day I 
shall be able to find out all these things. 

" Hotel, Cha, hotel ! " I cry out again, for the way is 
long, and the sun sinking, — sinking in the softest imagin- 
able glow of topazine light. I have not seen Shaka (so 
the Japanese have transformed the name Sakya-Muni); I 
have not looked upon the face of the Buddha. Perhaps I 
may be able to find his image to-morrow, somewhere in 
this wilderness of wooden streets, or upon the summit of 
some yet unvisited hill. 

The sun is gone ; the topaz-light is gone ; and Cha stops 
to light his lantern of paper; and we hurry on again, be- 
tween two long lines of painted paper lanterns suspended 
before the shops : so closely set, so level those lines are, 
that they seem two interminable strings of pearls of fire. 
And suddenly a sound — solemn, profound, mighty — peals 
to my ears over the roofs of the town, the voice of the 
tsurigane^ the great temple-bell of Nungiyama. 



FUJLSAN 

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 

YOU would not wonder, residing here, that every- 
body in Japan talks about Fuji, and thinks about 
her; paints her on fans, and limns her with 
gold on lacquer \ carves her on temple-gates and house- 
fronts, and draws her for curtains of shops and signboards of 
inns, rest-houses and public institutions. Living in Tokio 
or Yokohama, or anywhere along this Tokaido — the South- 
ern road of Japan — you would soon perceive how the great 
volcano dominates every landscape, asserts perpetually 
her sovereignty over all other hills and mountains, and 
becomes in reality as well as imagination, an indispensable 
element in the national scenery. 

Fuji-San, even among her loftiest sisters, is a giantess, 
nearer, by the best calculation, to 13,000 than 12,000 feet 
of elevation. The legend is that she rose in a single night, 
at about the date of Alexander the Great; and it is not im- 
possible. In 806 A. D., a temple was established on the 
mountain to the honour of the beautiful Goddess Ko- 
nohana-saku-ya Hime, though there is also a special deity of 
the eminence styled " O-ana-mochi-no-Mikoto," which 
means " Possessor of the Great Hole or Crater." 

As late as the Fourteenth Century Fuji was constantly 

no 



FUJI-SAN 111 

smoking, and fire is spoken of w.'th the eruptions, the last 
of which took place in December, 1707, and continued for 
nearly forty days. The Ho-Yei-san, or hump in the 
south face, was probably then formed. In this, her final 
outbreak, Fuji covered Tokio itself, sixty miles away, with 
six inches of ash, and sent rivers of lava far and wide. 
Since then she has slept, and only one little spot underneath 
the Kwan-nom-Gatake, on the lip of the crater, where 
steam exhales, and the red pumice-cracks are hot, shows 
that the heart of this huge volcano yet glows, and that she 
is capable of destroying again her own beauty and the for- 
ests and rich regions of fertility which clothe her knees and 
feet. 

It is a circuit of 120 miles to go all round the base of 
Fuji-San. If you could cut a tunnel through her from 
Yoshiwara to Kawaguchi, it would be forty miles long. 
Generally speaking, the lower portion of the mountain is cul- 
tivated to a height of 1,500 feet, and it is a whole province 
which thus climbs round her. From the border of the 
farms there begins a rough and wild, but flowery moorland, 
which stretches round the hill to an elevation of 4,000 feet, 
where there the thick forest belt commences. This girdles 
the volcano up to 7,000 feet on the Subashiri side and 8,000 
on the Murayama fall, but is lower to the eastward. Above 
the forest extends a narrow zone of thicket and bush, 
chiefly dwarfed larch, juniper, and 2.vaccinium y after which 
comes the bare, burnt, and terribly majestic peak itself, 
where the only living thing is a little yellow lichen which 



112 JAPAN 

grow in the fissures of the lava blocks, for no eagle or 
hawk ventures so high, and the boldest or most bewildered 
butterfly will not be seen above the bushes half-way down. 

The best — indeed, the only — time for the ascent of the 
mountain is between July 15th and September 5th. During 
this brief season, the snow will be melted from the cone, 
the huts upon the path will be opened for pilgrims, and 
there will be only the danger of getting caught by a ty- 
phoon, or reaching the summit to find it swathed day after 
day in clouds and no view obtainable. Our party of three 
started for the ascent on August 25th, taking that one of 
the many roads by which Fuji is approached that goes by 
Subashiri. Such an expedition may be divided into a series 
of stages. You have first to approach the foot of the 
mountain by train or otherwise, then to ride through the 
long slope of cultivated region. Then, abandoning horse 
or vehicles, to traverse on foot the sharper slopes of the 
forest belt. At the confines of this you will reach the first 
station, called Sho or Go ; for Japanese fancy has likened 
the mountain to a heap of dry rice and the stations are 
named by rice measures. From the first station to the 
ninth, whatever road you take, all will be hard, hot, con- 
tinuous climbing. You must go by narrow, bad paths, 
such as a goat might make, in loose volcanic dust, gritty 
pumice, or over the sharp edges of lava dykes, which cut 
boots and sandals to shreds. 

Taking train from Tokio to Gotemba, a station at the 
mountain's foot, we engaged " two men rikisha " to Suba- 



FUJI-SAN 113 

shiri ; rolling along a rough but pretty country road, lined 
with pine and bamboo, and rice-fields where the early crop 
was already in ear. Silk is a great product of the region, 
and piles of cocoons lay in the sunshine, while the winding 
reel everywhere buzzed inside the cottages. From time to 
time Fuji would reveal portions of her mighty outline, but 
she was mainly shrouded till we reached Subashiri, and put 
up at a native inn called Tone-Tana. It is the custom with 
pilgrims to present the flags of their sect which they bring 
to the innkeepers, who suspend them on strings, the conse- 
quence being that the little town fluttered with pennons of 
all colours from end to end of the long street, terminating 
and overhanging which you saw Fuji-San — gigantic, beau- 
tiful, terrible — clearly and cloudlessly shown from head to 
foot, promising us a good reward for our climb of the mor- 
row. In the inn at night all the talk is about the volcano, 
the state of the path, the chances of fine weather, and so 
forth. We order three horses and six ninsoku^ or '^ leg- 
men," to carry the indispensable blankets and provisions. 
They are to be ready at four o'clock in the morning, and 
we turn in early to get as much sleep as possible. 

At daybreak the horses are brought, and the six coolies, 
two by two, bind upon their backs tht futons and the food. 
We start, a long procession, through a broad avenue in the 
forest, riding for five miles, under a lovely dawn, the sun 
shining gloriously on the forehead of Fuji, who seems fur- 
ther off and more immensely lofty the nearer we approach. 
The woodland is full of wild strawberries and flowers j in- 



114 JAPAN 

eluding tiger-lilies, clematis, Canterbury bells, and the blue 
hotari-no hana^ or fire-fly blossom. At 6:30 A. m., we reach 
,Uma-Gayeshi, or " turn-the-horses-back " ; and hence to the 
mountain top there is nothing for it but to walk every step 
of the long, steep, and difficult path. Two of the men 
with the lightest loads lead the way along the narrow path, 
in a wood so thick that we shall not see Fuji again till we 
have passed through it. It takes us every now and then 
through the gates and precincts of little Shinto temples, 
where the priests offer us tea or mountain water. In one 
of them, at Ko-mitake, we are invited to ring the brass 
gong in order that the Deity may make our limbs strong 
for the task before us. And this is solemnly done by all 
hands, the ninsoku slapping their brown thighs piously after 
sounding the bell. 

Presently the forest clears away ; we are in sunlight 
again, well upon the lower slopes of Fuji ; but the opening 
is due to an awful phenomenon. In the early part of the 
year an avalanche had descended down the valley which 
we are climbing. In a single night Fuji will often collect 
millions of tons of snow upon her cone, and then will let 
it slip next day, as a lady puts off her bonnet de nuit. One 
of these great snow slides has rolled down our valley and 
crushed perfectly flat every shrub and sapling and tree on a 
track half a mile wide right through the forest. The 
stoutest pines and beeches, the sturdiest larches and oaks, 
are broken short off at the root and pressed close to the 
earth, just as when a heavy roller goes over long grass. 



FUJI-SAN 115 

One look at this is enough to explain why it is not prudent 
to ascend Fuji when the snow lies upon her sides. 

Up those sides we must now steadily trudge by a path 
which begins unpromisingly enough, and grows constantly 
ruder and harder. It is not so bad among the dwarf alder 
bushes, where grows the curious and very rare glabra^ 
called by the Japanese O Niku^ the root of which is sov- 
ereign for wounds and bruises. But it is quite bad enough 
long before we reach Shi-go-me, at 9:30 a. m., where we 
are to breakfast. This is Station No. 4, a rude hut built 
of black and red lava blocks, and standing at an elevation 
of 8,420 feet. You will see how we have been ascending. 
The stage on horseback from Subashiri lifted us 2,000 feet ; 
to the temple with the bell we made another 2,000 feet of 
altitude ; and now, at Shi-go-me, we are 2,000 feet higher 
still. A vast stratum of clouds hides at present the lower 
world ; but it breaks away in places to let us see and ad- 
mire a lovely lake shaped like the new moon, and called 
Mikazuki, shining in the hills near Yoshida. It is already 
welcome enough to halt and shake the sharp ashes from 
our boots, while we drink Liebig essence in hot water and 
eat tinned meats with an appetite sharpened by the already 
keen air. But we have a great height yet to climb to No. 
6 Station, where we shall lunch, and the path henceforward 
is of two kinds — both abominable. Either you zigzag to 
and fro in the loose black and red ashes, too steep and slip- 
pery to climb directly ; or you pick your way over the 
rugged slag and clinkers of a lava dyke, which is like as- 



ii6 JAPAN 

cending a shattered flight of steps or climbing the face of a 
furnace bank. Every fifteen minutes one or other of the 
strong mountaineers accompanying us cries out, " O ya- 
sumi ! " and we all sink gladly on the nearest block, breath- 
ing quick and hard, the air being now so rarefied that it 
seems impossible to get enough into the lungs. 

After each rest, of a minute or two, we plod on towards 
the little black lava hut marked by fluttering red and white 
flags, which is our next goal ; and truly very far ofF, and 
very high up, and very hard to reach each in turn seems to 
be. Yet one by one, keeping steadily at work, we attain 
to stations " four and a half," " five," " five and a half" 
(Gogo, go, Shaku), and then at last to No. 6 (Roku-go-Me), 
where we stand 10,000 feet above the sea. A halt is called 
in the little hut for " tifliin " and pipes, and we are joined 
by a party of pilgrims dressed all in white, with huge white 
soup-plate hats, who, like ourselves, are glad enough of a 
little rest and a whiff or two of the kiseru. Presently we 
start again up this tremendous cone, which seems to soar 
higher and higher in the blue the harder we toil to conquer 
it. Nevertheless, early in the afternoon we do reach Sta- 
tion No. 8, where we shall pass the night, more than 11,- 
000 feet above sea level. Not only is the air very rarefied, 
but also very cold. There lies a large patch of snow in a 
hollow of the cone close by, and the water freezes where 
it drips from the kitchen. All vegetation has vanished, 
even the polygonum, and we are glad to unpack our 
blankets and lie under them round the hihachi^ while such 



FUJI-SAN 117 

a meal as the mountain hut can furnish is being prepared. 
It consists of little else than small salted fish fried upon 
rice, but we supplement it with tinned provisions, and wash 
it down with weak whiskey and water. To realize the 
sleep which ensues after pipes and Japanese chat you must 
have been yourself climbing from daybreak till four in the 
afternoon. 

The shortest time in which the ascent has been made is 
six hours and a half. We, taking it more easily, made no 
attempt to beat the record, and stopped frequently to bot- 
anize, geologize, etc. The rarefaction of the air gave our 
Japanese companion, Takaji San, a slight headache, which 
soon passed as the circulation became accustomed to the 
atmosphere ; but Captain Ingles and I, being I suppose, 
both in excellent health and strength, experienced no in- 
convenience worth mentioning. 

At half-past four next morning, while I was dreaming 
under my thick coverings, a hand touched me and a voice 
said softly : " Danna Sama, hi no de ! " " Master, here is 
the sun!" The shoji at my feet were thrown open. I 
looked out, almost as you might from the moon, over a 
prodigious abyss of space, beyond which the eastern rim of 
all the world seemed to be on fire with flaming light. A 
belt of splendid rose and gold illumined all the horizon, 
darting long spears of glory into the dark sky overhead, 
gilding the tops of a thousand hills, scattered over the pur- 
ple plains below, and casting on the unbroken background 
of clouds beyond an enormous shadow of Fuji. The spec- 



ii8 JAPAN 

tacle was of unparalleled splendour, recalling Lord Tenny- 
son's line — 

" And, in the East, 
God made himself an awful Rose of Dawn." 

Moment by moment it grew more wonderful in loveliness 
of colour and brilliant birth of day ; and then, suddenly, 
just when the sun rolled into sight — an orb of gleaming 
gold, flooding the world beneath with almost insufferable 
radiance — a vast mass of dense white clouds swept before 
the north wind over the view, completely blotting out the 
sun, the belt of rose and gold, the lighted mountains and 
plains, and the lower regions of Fuji-San. It was day 
again, but misty, white, and doubtful ; and when we started 
to climb the last two stages of the cone the flags of the 
stations were invisible, and we could not know whether we 
should find the summit clear, or wrapped in enveloping 
clouds. 

All was to be fortunate, however, on this happy day ; 
and after a hard clambering of the remaining 2,000 feet we 
planted our staffs victoriously on the level ground of the 
crater's lip and gazed north, south, east and west through 
clear and cloudless atmosphere over a prodigious prospect, 
whose diameter could not be less than 300 miles. It was 
one of the few days when O-ana-mochi, the Lord of the 
Great Hole, was wholly propitious ! Behind the long row 
of little black huts standing on the edge of the mountain, 
gaped that awful, deadly Cup of the Volcano — an immense 
pit half a mile wide and six or seven hundred feet deep, its 



FUJI-SAN 1 19 

sides black, yellow, red, white and grey, with the varying 
hues of the lava and scoriae. In one spot where a 
perpetual shadow lay, from the ridge-peaks of Ken-ga-mine 
and the Shaka-no-wari-ishi, or " Cleft Rock of Buddha," 
gleamed a large patch of unmelted snow, and there was 
dust-covered snow at the bottom of the crater. We 
skirted part of the crater, passed by the dangerous path 
which is styled " Oya-shirazu, Ko-shirazu," " The place 
where you must forget parents and children to take care of 
yourself; " we saw the issue of the Kim-mei-sai or" Golden 
famous water," and of the Gim-mei-sai, or " Silver 
famous water"; and came back to breakfast at our hut 
silent with the delight and glory, the beauty and terror of 
the scene. Enormous flocks of fleecy clouds and cloudlets 
wandered in the lower air, many thousand feet beneath, 
but nowhere concealed the lakes, peaks, rivers, towns, 
villages, valleys, seacoasts, islands, and distant provinces 
spreading out all round. Imagine the prospect obtainable 
at 13,000 feet of elevation through the silvery air of Japan 
on a summer's morning with not a cloud, except shifting, 
thin, and transitory ones, to veil the view ! At the 
temple with the bell we were duly stamped — shirts, sticks, 
and clothing — with the sacred mark of the mountain, and 
having made the hearts of our faithful and patient 
ninsoku glad with extra pay, turned our backs on the great 
extinct volcano, whose crest, glowing again in the morning 
sunlight, had no longer any secrets for Captain Ingles, or 
Takaji San, or myself. 



THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 

PIERRE LOTI 

« He who has not beheld Nikko, has no right to make use of the word "^ 

splendour." — yapanese Proverb. 

IN the heart of the large island of Nippon and in a 
mountainous and wooded region, fifty leagues from 
Yokohama, is hidden that marvel of marvels — the "^ 
necropolis of the Japanese Emperors. 

There, on the declivity of the Holy Mountain of Nikko, 
under cover of a dense forest and in the midst of cascades 
vi'hose roar among the shadows of the cedars never ceases, 
is a series of enchanting temples, made of bronze and 
lacquer with roofs of gold which look as if a magic ring 
must have called them into existence among the ferns and 
mosses, in the green dampness, over-arched by dark 
branches and surrounded by the wildness and grandeur of 
Nature. 

Within these temples there is an inconceivable magnifi- 
cence, a fairy-like splendour. Nobody is about, except a 
i^'N guardian bonzes who chant hymns, and several white- 
robed priestesses, who perform the sacred dances whilst 
waving their fans. Every now and then in the deep and 
echoing forest are heard the slow vibrations of an enormous 
bronze gong, or the dull, heavy blows on a monstrous 

1 20 




o 



O 

c/i 

W 

a, 

W 
H 

0:1 
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THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 121 

prayer-drum. At other times there are certain sounds 
which really seem to be a part of the silence and solitude, 
the chirp of the grasshoppers, the cry of the falcons in the 
air, the cry of the monkeys in the branches and the 
monotonous fall of the cascades. 

All this dazzling gold in the mystery of the forest makes 
these sepulchres unique. This is the Mecca of Japan ; 
this is the heart, as yet inviolate, of this country which is 
now gradually sinking in the great Occidental current, but 
which has had a magnificent Past. Those were strange 
mystics and very rare artists who, three or four hundred 
years ago, realized all this magnificence in the depths of 
the woods and for their dead. 

We stop before the first temple. It stands a little off to 
itself in a kind of glade. You approach it by a garden 
with raised terraces ; a garden with grottos, fountains, and 
dwarf-trees with violet, yellow, or reddish foliage. 

The vast temple is entirely red, and blood-red ; an 
enormous black and gold roof, turned up at the corners, 
seems to crush it with its weight. From it comes a kind 
of religious music, soft and slow, interrupted from time to 
time by a heavy and horrible blow. 

It is wide open, open so that its entire facade with 
columns is visible ; but the interior is hidden by an im- 
mense white velum. The velum is of silk, only ornamented 
in its entire white length by three or four large black heraldic 
roses, which are very simple, but I cannot describe their 
exquisite distinction, and behind this first and half-lifted 



122 JAI'AN 



hanging,, llic liglil banibuu blinds arc let down tu the 
ground. 

\Vr w.div n|) srvrial granite sle[)s, and, to pemiil luy 
entrance, my guide pushes aside a corner of the Veil : tlic 
sanctuary appears. 

Within every llnng is in black lac(jner and j>oItl hit (jiier, 
with (hr goM prrdonunating. Above (lie eoiupiit atcd 
eornire and g()Klrn frie/e there spiiiii's a ceiling in 
compaitinents, in vvoikcti l.utjuciol blatk and gold. He- 
hind the colonnule at the bai k, llic icinolc |iail, where, 
donbtless, (he gods are kep(^ is liiddcn by long i nrtains 
ol black aiul g«>M biot.ulc, hanginp^ in stifF folds fu)in 
the ceilinj\ lo ihr llo*)!. ( )n ihr lloor ,nid upon white 
inals large goKlen vases are st.iiulmg hlletl with preal 
bunches of golden K)tnses as (.ill as decs. And lin.illy 
iiom (he ceiling, like (be boilics oi l.irge dead serpents or 
monstrous boas, hang .1 ipiantitv *»i astonishing caterpillars 
of silk, as larpr as a bmuan .iiin, blue, yelU)W, t>range, 
bu)vvnish-red, and bbu k, 01 strangely v.uiegatetl like the 
throats oC certain birds ol those islands. 

St>nu" bon/,es aic singing in one i im ncr, seatctl in a tircle 
ar»>\iiul A prayer-druni, l.ii!\c cnou!\b to lu)KI them all. 

Ami we go out by the b,u k tlo»>i, \\liich leads into the 
most curious g.udrn in the Wi>iKl : it is a sqn.uc bllcil with 
shadows shut m by the loicst cedars .iinl hi:\h w.dls, which 
are red like the saiutu.u\ , in the tciitic liscs a \c\\ \av^xv 
brnn/.e obelisk fl.mkcvl nvkIi \\n\\ lutlc ones, and crowned 
with a pvr.uuul t>t s'oKlcu leaves aiul i-oKlcn bells ; you 



THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 123 

would say that in this country bronze and gold cost noth- 
ing i they are used in such profusion, everywhere, just as 
we use the mean materials of stone and plaster. All along 
this blood-red wall which forms the back of the temple, in 
order to animate this melancholy garden, at about the 
height of a man there is a level row of little wooden gods, 
of all forms and colours, which are gazing at the obelisk, 
some blue, others yellow, others green i some have the 
shape of a man, others of an elephant : a company of 
dwarfs, extraordinarily comical, but which produce no 
merriment. 

In order to reach the other temples, we again walk 
through the damp and shadowy woods along the avenues 
of cedars which ascend and descend and intersect in vari- 
ous ways, and really constitute the streets of this city of 
the dead. 

We walk on pathways of fine sand strewn with these 
little brown needles which drop from the cedars. Always 
in terraces, they are bordered with balustrades and pillars 
of granite covered with the most delicious moss ; you 
would say all the hand-rails have been garnished with a 
beautiful green velvet, and at each side of the sanded path- 
way invariably flow little fresh and limpid brooks which 
join their crystal notes to those of the distant torrents and 
cascades. 

At a height of 100, or 200 metres, we arrive at the en- 
trance of something which seems to indicate magnificence: 
above us on the mountain in the medley of branches, the 



124 JAPAN 

walls taper upward while roofs of lacquer and bronze with 
their population of monsters are perched everywhere, 
shining with gold. 

Before this entrance there is a kind of open square, a 
narrow glade where a little sunlight falls. And here in its 
luminous rays two bonzes in ceremonial costume pass 
across the dark background : one, in a long robe of violet 
silk, with a surplice of orange silk ; the other in a robe of 
pearl-grey with a sky-blue surplice ; both wear a high and 
rigid head-dress of black lacquer, which is seldom worn 
now. (These were the only human beings whom we met 
on the way, during our pilgrimage.) They are probably 
going to perform some religious office, and, passing before 
the sumptuous entrance, they make profound bows. 

This temple before which we are now standing, is that 
of the deified soul of the Emperor lyeyasu (Sixteenth 
Century), and, perhaps, the most marvellous of all the 
buildings of Nikko. 

You ascend by a series of doors and enclosures which 
become more and more beautiful as you get higher and 
nearer the sanctuary, where the soul of this dead Emperor 
dwells. 

At the door of the Palace of the Splendour of the 
Orient we stop to take ofF our shoes according to custom. 
Gold is everywhere, resplendent gold. 

An indescribable ornamentation has been chosen for this 
threshold; on the enormous posts are a kind of wavy 
clouds, or ocean-billows, in the centre of which here and 



THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 125 

there appear the tentacles of medusae, the ends of paws, the 
claws of crabs, — the ends of long caterpillars, flat and 
scaly ; all kinds of horrible fragments, imitated in colossal 
size with a striking fidelity, and making you think that the 
beasts to which they belong must be hidden there within 
the walls ready to enfold you and tear your flesh. This 
splendour has mysteriously hostile undercurrents ; we feel 
that it has many a surprise and menace. Above our heads 
the lintels are, however, ornamented with large, exquisite 
flowers in bronze, or gold : roses, peonies, wistaria, and 
spring branches of full-blown cherry-blossoms ; but, still 
higher, horrible faces with fixed death's-head grimaces lean 
towards us ; terrible things of all shapes hang by their 
golden wings from the golden beams of the roof; we per- 
ceive in the air rows of mouths split open with atrocious 
laughter, rows of eyes half-closed in an unquiet sleep. 

An old priest, aroused by the noise of our footsteps on 
the gravel in the silence of the court, appears before us on 
the bronze threshold. In order to examine the permit 
which I present to him, he puts a pair of round spectacles 
on his nose, which make him look like an owl. 

My papers are in order. A bow, and he steps aside to 
let me enter. 

It is gloomy inside this palace, with that mysterious 
semi-twilight which the Spirits delight in. The impressions 
felt on entering are grandeur and repose. 

The walls are of gold and the vault is of gold, supported 
on columns of gold. A vague, trembling light illuminating 



126 JAPAN 

as if from beneath enters through the very much grated and 
very low window^s ; the dark undetermined depths are full 
of the gleamings of precious things. 

Yellow gold, red gold, green gold ; gold that is vital, or 
tarnished; gold that is brilliant, or lustreless ; here and there 
on the friezes and on the exquisite capitals of the columns, 
a little vermilion, a little emerald green ; very little, noth- 
ing but a thin thread of colour, just enough to relieve the 
wing of a bird, and the petal of a lotus, a peony, or a rose. 
Despite so much richness nothing is overcharged ; such 
taste has been displayed in the arrangement of the thou- 
sands of diverse forms and such harmony in the extremely 
complicated designs that the effect of the whole is simple 
and reposeful. 

Neither human figures nor idols have a part in this sanc- 
tuary of Shintoism. Nothing stands upon the altars but 
large vases of gold filled with natural flowers in sheaves, or 
gigantic flowers of gold. 

No idols, but a multitude of beasts flying or crawling, fa- 
miliar or chimaerical, pursue each other upon the walls, and 
fly away from the friezes and arches, in all attitudes 
of fury and struggle of terror and flight. Here, a flight of 
swans hurries away in swift flight the whole length of the 
golden cornice ; in other places are butterflies with tortoises ; 
large and hideous insects among the flowers, or many death- 
combats between fantastic beasts of the sea, medusae with 
big eyes, and imaginary fishes. On the ceilings innumera- 
ble dragons bristle and coil. The windows, cut out in mul- 



THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 127 

tiple trefoils, in a form never before seen, and which give 
little light, seem only a pretext for displaying all kinds of 
marvellous piercings : trellises of gold entwined with golden 
leaves among which golden birds are sporting; all of this 
seems accumulated at pleasure and permits the least possi- 
ble light to enter into the deep golden shadows of the tem- 
ple. The only really simple objects are the columns of a 
fine golden lacquer ending with capitals of a very sober 
design, forming a slight calix of the lotus, like those of cer- 
tain ancient Egyptian palaces. 

We could spend days in admiring separately each panel, 
each pillar, each minute detail ; the least little piece of the 
vault, or the walls would be a treasure for a museum. And 
so many rare and extravagant objects have succeeded in 
making the whole a composition of large quiet lines ; many 
living forms, many distorted bodies, many ruffled wings, stiff 
claws, open mouths, and squinting eyes have succeeded in 
producing a calm, an absolute calm by force of an inexpli- 
cable harmony, twilight and silence. 

I believe, moreover, that here is the quintessence of Jap- 
anese Art, of which the specimens brought to our collec- 
tions of Europe cannot give the true impression. And we 
are struck by feeling that this Art, so foreign to us, pro- 
ceeds from an origin so different; nothing here is derived, 
ever so remotely, from what we call antiquities — Greek, 
Latin, or Arabian — which always influence, even if we are 
not aware of it, our native ideas regarding ornamental form. 
Here the least design, the smallest line, — everything is as 



128 JAPAN 

profoundly strange as if had come from a neighbouring planet 
which had never held communication with our side of the 
world. 

The entire back of the temple, where it is almost night, 
is occupied by great doors of black lacquer and gold lacquer, 
with bolts of carved gold, shutting in a very sacred place 
which they refuse to show me. They tell me, moreover, 
that there is nothing in these closets; but that they are the 
places where the deified souls of the heroes love to dwell ; 
the priests only open them on certain occasions to place in 
them poems in their honour, or prayers wisely written on 
rice-paper. 

The two lateral wings on each side of the large golden 
sanctuary are entirely of marquetry^ in prodigious designs 
composed of the most precious mosaics left in their natural 
colour. The representations are animals and plants : on 
the walls light leaves in relief, bamboo, grasses of extreme 
delicacy, gold convolvulus falling in clusters of flowers, 
birds of resplendent plumage, peacocks and pheasants with 
spread tails. There is no painting here, no gold-work ; the 
whole effect is sombre, the general tone that of dead wood ; 
but each leaf of each branch is composed of a different 
piece ; and also each feather of each bird is shaded in such 
a way as almost to produce the effect of changing colours 
on the throats and wings. 

And at last, at last, behind all this magnificence, the 
most sacred place which they show me last, the most 
strange of all strange places, is the little mortuary court 



THE TEMPLES OF NIKKO 129 

which surrounds the tomb. It is hollowed out of a moun- 
tain between whose rocky walls water is dripping : the 
lichens and moss have made a damp carpet here and the 
tall surrounding cedars throw their dark shadows over it. 
There is an enclosure of bronze, shut by a bronze door 
which is inscribed across its centre with an inscription in 
gold, — not in the Japanese language, but in Sanscrit to give 
more mystery ; a massive, lugubrious, inexorable door, ex- 
traordinary beyond all expression and which is the ideal 
door for a sepulchre. In the centre of this enclosure is a 
kind of round turret also in bronze having the form of a 
pagoda-bell, of a kneeling beast, of I don't know what un- 
known and disturbing thing and surmounted by a great 
astonishing heraldic flower : here, under this singular object 
rests the body of the little yellow honhomme^ once the Em- 
peror lyeyasu, for whom all this pomp has been displayed. 

A little breeze agitates the branches of the cedars this 
morning and there falls a shower of these little dry brown 
needles, a little brown rain on the greyish lichens, on the 
green velvet moss and upon the sinister bronze objects. 
The voice of the cascades is heard in the distance like 
perpetual sacred music. An impression of nothingness 
and supreme peace reigns in this final court to which so 
much splendour leads. 

In another quarter of the forest the temple of the deified 
soul of lyemitsu is of an almost equal magnificence. It 
is approached by a similar series of steps of little carved 
and gilded light-towers, doors of bronze and enclosures of 



130 JAPAN 

lacquer ; but the plan of the whole is a little less regular, 
because the mountain is more broken. 

A solemn hour on the Holy Mountain is at night-fall, 
when they close the temples. It is even more lugubri- 
ous at this autumnal season, when the twilight brings sad 
thoughts. With heavy rumblings which linger long in the 
sonorous forest, the great panels of lacquer and bronze are 
rolled on their grooves and shut in the magnificent build- 
ings which have been open all day although visited by 
nobody. A cold and damp shiver passes through the black 
forest. For fear of fire which might consume these mar- 
vels, not a single light is allowed in this village of Spirits, 
where certainly darkness falls sooner and remains longer 
than, anywhere else ; no lamp has ever shone upon these 
treasures, which, for many centuries have thus slept in 
darkness in the very heart of Japan ; and the cascades in- 
crease their music while the silence of night enshrouds the 
forest so rich in enchantment. 




o 
o 

X 
in 

W 



THE IS^ SHRINES 

ISABELLA BIRD BISHOP 

THESE temples of Ise, the Geku and the Naiku, 
called by the Japanese by a name which literally 
means "the two great divine palaces," rank first 
among Shinto shrines in point of sanctity, and are to 
Shintoists, even in the irreligious present, something of 
what A4ecca is to Mussulmans, and the Holy Places 
of Jerusalem to Greeks and Latins. Tens of thousands 
of pilgrims still resort to them annually, and though the 
pilgrimage season is chiefly in the spring months, there is 
no time of year in which there is an absolute cessation of 
visitors. 

The two groups of shrines are distant about three and a 
half miles from each other. It is sufficient to describe the 
Geku shrine, which is exactly copied from the Naiku. 
Both stand in the midst of ancient cryptomeria, each stately 
tree in Shinto fancy worthy to be a god, but it is the cam- 
phor groves, the finest in Japan, covering the extensive 
and broken grounds with their dark magnificence, which so 
impress a stranger with their unique grandeur as to make 
him forget the bareness and meanness of the shrines which 
they overshadow. 

131 



132 JAPAN 

The grand entrance is reached from Yamada by crossing 
a handsome bridge, which leads to a wide space enclosed 
by banks faced with stone. On the right is a building 
occupied by the temple-attendants, where fragments of the 
wood used in building the shrines, packets of the rice 
offered to the gods and sundry other charms are offered for 
sale. Close to this there is a massive Tori-i^ the entrance to 
the temple-grounds, which are of great extent, and contain 
hills, ravines, groves and streams. Very broad and finely- 
gravelled roads, with granite margins and standard lamps at 
intervals, intersect them, and their Tori-i^ stone bridges, 
stone staircases, and stone-faced embankments, are all on a 
grand scale and in perfect repair. On the left hand, 
within the entrance, there are some plain buildings, one of 
which is occupied by several temple-attendants in white 
silk vestments, whose business it is to sell the o-harai to all 
comers. Heavy curtains with the Mikado's crest upon 
them are draped over the entrances to this and the building 
at the gate, and may be taken as indicating that Shinto is 
under " State " patronage. 

Passing through stately groves by a stately road and 
under a second massive Tori-i^ the visitor reaches the famous 
Geku shrine, and even in spite of Mr. Satow's realistic 
description, is stricken with a feeling of disappointment, for 
he is suddenly brought up by a great oblong enclosure of 
neatly planed wood, the upright posts, which are just over 
nine feet high, being planted at distances of six feet, the 
intervals being completely filled up with closely-fitting and 



THE ISE SHRINES 133 

very heavy planking laid horizontally. The only orna- 
ments are bamboo receptacles on each post, containing 
sprigs of Cleyera 'Japonica^ changed occasionally. This 
monotonous-looking enclosure rests on a raised platform 
of broken stone, supported on a rough stone-faced embank- 
ment about three feet high. One corner of this is formed 
by a large, irregularly shaped dark stone, worn perfectly 
smooth from being constantly rubbed by the hands of per- 
sons who believe that by rubbing the stone first, and then 
any painful part of the body, the pain will be cured. The 
front of this extraordinary enclosure is 247 feet long, the 
rear 235 feet, one side 339 feet and the other 335 feet. It 
has five entrances, the principal one eighteen feet wide, 
facing the road, being formed by a Tori-i, At a distance of 
twenty-four feet from three of these entrances are high 
wooden screens, and a similar screen, at a distance of 
seventy-six feet, hides the main entrance, much in the 
same way that the great brick screens in Canton conceal 
the gateways of the private dwellings of the mandarins. 
Within the entrance Tori-i there is a wooden gateway with 
a thatched roof, but a curtain with the Mikado's crest con- 
ceals all view of the interior court. In front of this gate- 
way the pilgrims make their obeisances and throw down 
their rin upon a white cloth. The other entrances are 
closed with solid gates. There is no admission except for 
the specially privileged, but a good view into the enclosure 
is gained by climbing a bank upon its west side. 

Within the thatched gateway there is a pebbled court, on 



134 JAPAN 

the right of which is a long narrow shed, one of three 
buildings set apart for the entertainment of the envoys sent 
by the Mikado after the annual harvest festival. In a 
straight line from the second gateway a flagged pavement, 
passing under a Tori-i at a distance of ninety-nine feet, 
reaches another thatched gateway, through which there is a 
third court, formed by palisades the height of a man, placed 
close together. Another thatched gateway gives entrance 
to the last enclosure, an area nearly square, being 134 feet 
by 131, surrounded by a very stout palisade. Within this 
stands the shoden^ or shrine of the gods, and on the right 
and left two treasuries. The impression produced by the 
whole resembles that made upon the minds of those who 
have made the deepest researches into Shinto — there is 
nothing, and all things, even the stately avenues of the 
Geku, lead to nothing. 

In the north-west corner of the area is a plain building 
containing the gohei wands, with dependent pieces of paper, 
usually worshipped as gods, but at Ise only believed to have 
the power of attracting the spirits of the gods to the spot, 
which was their original meaning. In the north-east cor- 
ner, within a special enclosure, there is another plain build- 
ing, in which the water and food offered to the gods of 
the Geku are set out. The daily offerings to the principal 
deity consist of sixteen saucers of rice, four saucers of salt, 
four cups of water, and such fish, birds and vegetables as 
may be contributed by the surrounding villages, and the 
three secondary deities receive one-half each, The chief 



THE ISE SHRINES 135 

deity of the Geku is " The Goddess of Food," and of the 
Naiku, the great " Sun Goddess." 

Having followed Shinto to its centre at Ise, the bare 
wooden building, which is the kernel of the Geku en- 
closure and the Shinto " Holy of Holies," assumes a very 
special interest, but here, again, there is nothing but disap- 
pointment, for the shoden only contains four boxes of un- 
painted wood, furnished with light handles, resting on low 
stands, and covered with what is said to be white silk. In 
each box is a mirror wrapped in a brocade bag, which is 
never renewed, only re-covered. Over one mirror is placed 
a cage of unpainted wood, which is covered with a curtain 
of coarse silk, which conceals both cage and box. The 
three other boxes stand outside this cage, but are also 
covered, and the coverings are all that can be seen when 
the shrines are opened on festival days. It is in these 
mirrors that the spirits of the gods are supposed to dwell. 
Much ingenious rubbish has been devised to account for 
the presence of a looking-glass in every Shinto temple ; 
but the fact is, that the original Ise mirror, of which all the 
rest are copies, merely represents the great Sun Goddess, 
the supposed ancestress of the Mikado, and, together with 
the sword, which constitute the Japanese regalia, found a 
resting-place at Ise, after many wanderings, in the year 
4 B. c. 

The Geku was founded in the year 478 a. d., and it has 
been customary from time immemorial to rebuild a temple, 
alternately on either site, once in twenty years, 



136 JAPAN 

The Ise shrines were unknown to Europeans till 1872, 
when the Government very liberally gave Mr. Satow and 
a small party of foreigners the opportunity of visiting them. 
They are now open to passport holders under certain re- 
strictions, and are singularly interesting to those who have 
made either an original or second-hand study of Shinto. 



THE DAI^BUTSU OF NARA 

SIR EDWARD REED 

WE had decided to devote the whole day to Nara, 
returning the following day, but nevertheless 
there was no time to lose ; therefore breakfast 
over, we started on our tour of the temples, guided by ex- 
perienced officers, and attended by a pleasant set of Japa- 
nese companions and interpreters. Besides a few European 
coats upon some of our conductors, there was nothing to 
break in upon the aspect which this part of the old city had 
worn for more than a thousand years. 

On leaving the grounds of our temporary residence, we 
stepped at once into the shadow of that huge structure the 
great gate of the Temple of Dai-butsu — an immense and 
imposing pile, containing two colossal carved gate-keepers 
or kings, of very forbidding aspect and attitude, but who 
were less hideous than others of the kind. This great 
gateway was on our left ; on our right, at a distance of 
three to four hundred yards, was another gateway to the 
great temple, the broad road between the two gateways 
having wide grassy spaces on either side, from which spring 
many ancient and lofty old trees. The space between the 
two gates is therefore a broad and beautiful promenade for 
the greater part of the year. Our first visit was to the 

137 



138 JAPAN 

famous temple of the great Buddha. As usual in ap- 
proaches to Japanese temples, there are several shops near 
to the temple itself. In the centre of the large open space 
between the lesser gateway and the temple is an immense 
and very old bronze lantern, large enough for a man to 
stand in. This lantern was presented to the temple by the 
renowned hero and statesman Yoritomo, who died in the 
year 1199, and is seven hundred years old. It is in daily 
use still. This temple was originally founded and the im- 
mense image made by the Mikado Shomu, the forty -sixth 
of the present line of emperors, and the third of Nara who 
died 748 A. D. This temple was destroyed seven hundred 
years ago in the terrible civil wars of the Twelfth Century, 
and again seriously injured, so that the head of the god had 
to be recast in the Seventeenth Century. The great gate- 
way, however, with most of the other buildings of this great 
temple, has escaped such injuries, and although con- 
structed of wood have stood as they now stand for more 
than eleven centuries. 

The interest of this place centres, of course, in the great 
god of bronze and gold, who (subject to the mischances just 
mentioned) has been the wonder of Japan for so many ages 
past. It has been positively stated by some that a consid- 
erable amount of gold entered into his composition, but those 
on the spot seem to be uncertain as to whether the gold em- 
ployed in making him was mixed with the bronze of which 
he is cast, or applied superficially to him. 

The dimensions of this god are truly colossal. His 



THE DAI-BUTSU OF NARA 139 

height from the base of the sacred lotus-flower on which 
he sits to the top of his head is sixty-three and a half feet, 
and above this rises a halo fourteen feet wide, above which 
again rises for several feet the flame-like glory which arches 
in the whole figure. The face proper is sixteen feet long, 
its width nine and a half feet. The eyes are three feet nine 
inches long, the eyebrows five and a half feet, the ears 
eight and a half feet. The chest is twenty feet in depth. 
Its middle finger is five feet long. Around the head, 
shoulders, and sides of the god, in front of the halo, are 
sixteen sitting figures, said to be eight feet long. The 
leaves of the immense lotus on which he sits are each ten 
feet long and six feet wide, and there are fifty-six of them. 
The casting^ must have been wonderfully well executed, 
although the fineness of the leaf-edges and other parts 
which we were able to examine, and the elaborate engraving 
which can be traced upon the lotus-leaves in the uninjured 
parts, leave no doubt that the founder's art was elaborately 
supplemented by the file and graver. The countenance of 
the god is less mild and calm of expression than is usual in 
images of Buddha. The right hand is opened and raised 
upwards, the left rests on the lap. 

The surroundings of this enormous. image are interesting, 
some of them very beautiful. On his right hand is a very 
large image of Kokuzo, and on his left one of the goddess 

1 This idol was first cast in the year 743. It was twice destroyed dur- 
ing the time of wars in its neighbourhood, and the idol which at present 
exists was erected about seven hundred years ago. 



MO JAPAN 

Kwannon, who here seems to occupy a more pronounced 
and immediate association with Buddha than usual. 

Our return trip was a dehghtful one. Up at seven in 
the morning, we were soon sunning ourselves in the deli- 
cious brightness and warmth, with a pretty and curious 
garden before us, and old temples, old woods, and old hills 
all around us, and a sky above us far older than all of them, 
and yet wrought of material as unsubstantial and evanes- 
cent as a dream. 

Passing once more the grim gate-keepers, away we rolled, 
merrily through the merry morning, past the old temples 
and pagodas ; among the staring people ; between the 
huge lanterns of the portal, and on to the westward- 
spreading plain over which eleven hundred years ago 
the imperial sacred city shone. On our right lay large 
mounds, the tombs of emperors and empresses, each of 
whom has been a god for ages past. Over their tombs 
spread clumps of pine-trees, and beneath the pines stand 
their shrines, to which a people reverent, and with a cause, 
of their ancestral gods resort to breathe forth their simple 
prayers. About a mile and a half from the present bound- 
ary, we reached a village, at which the road turned right 
and left, and it was to this point that the ancient capital 
extended. 



KIOTO 

PIERRE LOTI 

WHAT a great city, this Kioto, occupying with 
its parks, its palaces, its pagodas, almost the 
territory of Paris. Built entirely on a plain, 
but surrounded by high mountains as though to appear more 
mysterious. 

We hurry on through a labyrinth of small streets of lit- 
tle wooden houses which are low and discoloured. It has 
the appearance of a deserted city. This is truly Japanese, 
and nothing is inharmonious. I alone am odd, since people 
turn back to look at me. 

It takes half an hour's frantic hurrying to get to the 
Hotel Yaami, the address of which I had given to my djin. 
This is apparently a real hotel, quite new, which a Japanese 
has set up in the English style, for the accommodation of 
amiable travellers from the West. It is absolutely necessary 
that we should go there to obtain something to eat, as the 
Japanese cuisine serves us at best as a form of amusement. It 
is charmingly situated, fifty miles up in the mountains over- 
looking the city, amongst gardens and woods. We made 
the ascent by means of an extremely dainty ascent, up 
slopes which are sanded and bordered by rock-work and 
flowers, all of this too pretty, too much studied, too much 

141 



142 JAPAN 

after the design on a Chinese vase, but yet very dainty, 
very neat. 

A first light repast, served entirely in the English style, 
accompanied with tea and bread and butter, and then I call 
for two djin whom I engage at a fixed wage of seventy- 
five cents each per diem j for this sum they will run around 
for me from morning until night without so much as getting 
out of breath or heaving a sigh, dragging me along with 
them. 

This travelling by way of djins is a never to be forgotten 
souvenir of the days in Kioto where we are compelled to 
hurry to see and do so many things. 

Hurried along at a gait twice as fast as a horse at the 
trot, we jump from one rut into another, push through the 
crowds, cross little creaking bridges, and find ourselves 
travelling along through deserted gardens. We even mount 
and descend steps j so that at each step, bump, bump, bump 
we are shaken in our seats, breaking the shock with our 
hands. Finally, at night, we find ourselves dazed, and we 
see things defiling before us in a hurried kaleidoscopic way, 
the changing scene of which would tire the eyes. 

How eccentric, changeable, bizarre is this Kioto ! The 
streets still noisy, encumbered with <^V«j, with strollers, ven- 
dors of gaudy posters, of eccentric oriflammes which float in 
the breeze. 

At one time, we are hurrying amidst noises and cries ; at 
another, it is amidst the silence of abandoned things, amidst 
the debris of a great, dead past. We are in the midst of a 




o 

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Pi 

H 



KIOTO 143 

glittering show of stufFs and porcelains; then again we 
approach great temples, and only the vendors of idols open 
up their booths filled with unimaginable figures; or again, 
we are surprised by suddenly entering a forest of bamboos 
whose tops are of great height, close together, frail and 
gives one the impression of having become an insignificant 
insect such as crawls through the fine grass of our fields in 
June. 

And what an immense religious caphamaum, and what a 
gigantic sanctuary of adoration, is this Kioto of the ancient 
Emperors ! Three thousand temples where rest innumer- 
able riches, consecrated to all kinds of gods, goddesses, or 
beasts. Palaces empty and silent, where we traverse shoe- 
less, a series of rooms all in lacquer and gold, decorated in 
a manner strangely rare and beautiful. Sacred groves con- 
taining centenarian trees, the avenues of which are bordered 
with a legion of monsters in granite, marble, or bronze. 

To see this whole deployed before us from a height, in 
the gay morning sunshine, at nine o'clock, we ascend a 
tower, such as did Madame Malborough of days of old ; — 
it is the Yasaka tower ; — it reminds one of those pagodas 
with multiple stories, such as one sees on the backs of those 
bronze elephants in which the Chinese burn incense. The 
ground floor is arranged as a temple ; large golden Buddhas 
lost in ancientness and dust, lanterns and sacred vases con- 
taining bouquets of lotus. 

On the top story, a Buddha Cabinet in a corner. I 
open it, to look at the god who inhabits it ; he appears very 



144 JAPAN 

aged and decayed, squatting down in his lotus, with a mys- 
terious smile under a layer of dust. From this topmost 
gallery, we see, as though hovering over it, the immense 
city, spread out like an ant-hill on the level plain, with its 
fence of tall mountains, whose forests of pine and bamboo 
are of a lovely green tint. 

At the first glance, one would almost imagine it to be a 
European city ; millions of small roofs with sombre grey 
tiles, which remind us of our Northern cities; here and 
there straight thoroughfares, making clear lines in the 
midst of this blackish mass. 

In spite of oneself, one looks for churches and belfrys ; 
but no, nothing of this kind ; on the contrary, a strange 
and far-away note is given by these high monumental roofs, 
too large, too strangely shaped, which surge up in the 
midst of small low houses, and which are either palaces or 
pagodas. Not a sound reaches me from the old religious 
capital ; at such a height one would say it were entirely 
dead. 

A beautiful soft sun lights it up, and floats over it like a 
veil, like the light mist of autumn mornings. 

The temple of Kiyomizu, — one of the most beautiful 
and most venerated. It is, according to custom, perched 
somewhat up in the mountains, surrounded by the beauti- 
ful verdure of the woods. The roads by which we ascend 
are pretty well deserted. The approaches are occupied es- 
pecially by porcelain vendors, their varied stock glistening 
with varnish and gilt. No one is in the booths, no one is 



KIOTO 145 

outside to inspect them. These streets are only frequented 
on certain days of pilgrimage or holidays; to-day it resem- 
bles a large exposition devoid of visitors. 

As we approach, always ascending, the vendors of porce- 
lains give place to vendors of idols, a stranger kind of ware. 
Thousands of figures of gods and monsters, sinister, mock- 
ing, or grotesque ; some are enormous and others very old, 
having escaped from old demolished temples, and which are 
very costly ; there are especially an innumerable quantity 
in clay and in plaster, standing on the pavement at a cent 
apiece, or even less, altogether humorous and comical, for 
the use of little children. Where does the god begin and 
the plaything end ? Do the Japanese themselves know ? 

The steps follow one another really too rapidly, and I 
descend to the ground, in spite of my djin assuring me that 
it does not matter, that this street can be quite easily as- 
cended on wheels. At last, here is a real stairway in gran- 
ite, monumental, at the top of which stands the first mon- 
strous portal of the temple. 

At first we enter into large courts and terraces from which 
the view extends over the holy city ; ancient trees spread 
their branches over a pell-mell mass of tombs, monsters, 
religious kiosks, and garlanded tea-booths. Little second- 
ary temples, filled with idols, are planted at hazard, here 
and there. And the two large ones appear at the other 
end, crowding everything else with their enormous roofs. 

A miraculous water, which people come from long dis- 
tances to drink, comes limpid and fresh from the moun- 



146 JAPAN 

tain, vomited into a basin by a chimaera in bronze, bristling, 
clawing, enraged, doubles up on itself as though ready to 
make a spring. 

In these large temples at the further end, one is seized 
on entering by an unexpected sentiment of horror of things 
religious : the gods appear recoiling, which is increased by 
the profoundness of the obscurity. A number of barriers 
prevents the profanation of the region which they inhabit 
and in which burn lamps with their light subdued. 

They are seen seated on benches, in chairs on thrones 
of gold. Buddhas, Amidas, Kwannons, Bentens, a pell- 
mell of symbols and emblems, including the mirrors of the 
Shinto cult which are representative of truth ; all this gives 
the idea of a horrible chaos of Japanese theogony. Before 
them are heaped up unheard of riches ; gigantic perfume- 
burners of antique design ; marvellous lamp-holders ; sacred 
vases from which protrude sheaves of lotus in silver or gold. 
From the arch of the temple hang a profusion of embroid- 
ered banners, lanterns, enormous chandeliers of copper and 
bronze, crowded together as almost to touch, this in an ex- 
travagant confusion. But time has shed over these things 
a slightly grey tint, like that of a badger, which is softening, 
to harmonize them all. The massive columns with bases 
of bronze are worn away to the height of a human body by 
the contact of past generations who came to their prayers ; 
the whole breathes of a far-away spirit of past epochs. 

Groups of men and women defile past the idols in bare 
feet, with an inattentive and light air ; they however recite 



KIOTO 147 

prayers, clapping their hands so as to attract the attention 
of the spirits ; they then seat themselves under the tents 
of the vendors of tea, to smoke and to laugh. 

The second temple is in appearance like the first ; the 
same heaping up of precious objects ; only it has the 
peculiarity of being constructed as a projection, suspended 
over a precipice; these are prodigious piles which for 
centuries have sustained it in the air (/. ^., in position). 
On entering, one does not realize it, but on arriving at the 
end, at the veranda at the back part, one leans over with 
surprise to plunge the eyes into an abyss of verdure which 
one overhangs ; forests of bamboos, of a delicious freshness 
and seen from overhead in a fading foreshortening. One 
is here as though on the balcony of some gigantic aerian 
dwelling. 

From below, arise sounds of most merry plashing of 
water and bursts of laughter. There are five miraculous 
sources, having the power of rendering young married 
women mothers, and a group of women are Installed 
beneath the shade drinking the same. This wood com- 
posed entirely of Japanese bamboos is singularly beautiful. 
Seen as it is from above, it appears like a series of immense 
plumes regular and parallel, tinted with the same five 
shaded green colour which becomes clearer towards the 
tops ; and the whole is so light, that at each breath of air 
they wave and tremble. And these women down below 
in this well of verdure, appear like little Japanese fairies 
with their gowns of startling colours fantastically coni- 



148 JAPAN 

bined, with their high head-dress traversed by pins and 
flowers. These new things are refreshing to gaze upon 
after all those terrible gods which one sees under the lights 
of lamps, and which one sees continually before one, be- 
hind one, aligned in those obscure sanctuaries. 

At the Hotel Yaami, the meals are arranged after a 
manner truly Britannic: small pieces of bread; underdone 
roast meats and boiled potatoes. 

In this hotel I experienced a truly agreeable moment. 
It is after the mid-day dinner when I sit alone on the 
veranda from which one overlooks the city, smoking a 
cigarette in a sort of half-doze of the spirit. On the first 
level is the garden, with its labyrinths in miniature, its 
very small rock-work, its miniature lake, its dwarfed trees, 
some of which have leaves, other flowers only, just like 
the scenery on porcelain. Over and above these pretty 
things, in the Japanese fashion, there is deployed in the 
distance the city with its thousands of black roofs, its 
palaces, its temples, and its belt of bluish mountains. 

There is always the light white mist of autumn floating 
in the air, and the warm sun, lighting up everything with 
its pure light. And the country is entirely filled with the 
everlasting music of the grasshoppers. 

Mr. Yaami, I beg you to order my djin at once and 
let us away to the palace of Taiko-Sama ! 



A 



THE MIKADO'S PALACE 

PIERRE LOTI 

N enclosure of high walls. My djin stop in front 
of a first gateway in the ancient severe and 
religious style : massive columns with bases of 
bronze ; a narrow frieze sculptured with strange orna- 
ments ; and a heavy and enormous roof. 

Then I walked into the vast deserted court-yards 
planted with venerable trees, to the branches of which 
they have given props, like crutches for old men. The 
immense buildings of the palace first appeared to me in a 
kind of disorder where you can discern no plan of unity. 
Everywhere you see these high, monumental, and heavy 
roofs, whose corners turn up in Chinese curves and bristle 
with black ornaments. 

Not seeing any one, I walked on at random, entering 
into the silence of an incomprehensible Past, in the dead 
splendour of a civilization, whose architecture, design, and 
aesthetic taste were to me strange and unknown. 

A bonze guard who saw me, advanced, and, making a 
bow, asked me for my name and passport. 

It was satisfactory : he will take me himself to see the 
entire palace on condition that I will take off my shoes and 
remove my hat. He even brings me velvet sandals which 

149 



150 JAPAN 

are offered to visitors. Thanks, I prefer to walk with bare 
feet like him, and we begin our silent walk through an in- 
terminable series of halls all lacquered in gold, and deco- 
rated with a rare and exquisite strangeness. 

On the floor there is that eternal white matting that one 
finds just as simple, as well kept and as neat in the homes 
of the emperors and in the temples, as among the middle 
classes and the poor. No furniture ; for this is unknown 
in Japan, or slightly known at most ; the palace is entirely 
empty. All the surprising magnificence is upon the walls 
and ceilings. The precious golden lacquer is displayed 
uniformly on all sides, and upon this background, Byzan- 
tine in effect, all the celebrated artists of the great Japanese 
century have painted inimitable objects. Each hall has 
been decorated by a different and illustrious painter, whose 
name the bonze cited to me with respect. In one there 
are all the known flowers ; in another, all the birds of the 
air, and all the beasts of the field; or perhaps hunting- 
scenes and combats, where you see warriors dressed in armour 
and terrifying helmets, on horseback pursuing monsters and 
chimaeras. The most peculiar one, assuredly, is decorated 
entirely with fans : fans of all forms and of all colours, open, 
shut, and half open, thrown with extreme grace upon the 
fine golden lacquer. The ceilings, also of golden lacquer 
are in compartments, painted with the same care and the 
same art. What is, perhaps, the most marvellous of all, 
is that series of high pierced friezes that extends around 
all the ceilings ; you think of generations of patient 



THE MIKADO'S PALACE 151 

workmen who have worn themselves out in chiselling such 
delicate, almost transparent things, in such thicknesses 
of wood : sometimes there are rose-bushes, sometimes 
entanglements of wistaria, or sheaves of rice ; elsewhere 
flights of storks that seem to cleave the air with great ve- 
locity, forming with their thousands of claws, extended 
necks, and feathers, a medley so beautifully combined 
that it is alive and scurrying away j nothing lags behind, 
nor falls into confusion. 

In this palace, which is windowless, it is dusky ; a half- 
darkness favourable to enchantments. The greater number 
of these halls receive a shimmering light from the outside 
verandas, composed only of lacquered columns, to which 
they are entirely open on one side ; it is the subdued light 
of deep sheds, or of markets. The more mysterious 
interior apartments open on the first by other similar 
columns, and receive from it a still more attenuated 
light ; they can be shut at will by bamboo curtains of an 
extreme delicacy, whose tissue imitates in its transparency 
the form of a wave, and which are raised to the ceiling by 
enormous tassels of red silk. Communication is had by 
species of doorways, the forms of which are unusual and 
unthought-of : sometimes they are perfect circles and some- 
times they are more complicated figures, such as hexagons 
or stars. And all these secondary openings have frame- 
works of black lacquer which stand out with an elegant 
distinction upon the general background of the gold, 
and which bear upon the corners ornaments of bronze 



152 JAPAN 

marvellously chiselled by the metal-workers of the 
past. 

The centuries also have embellished this palace, veiling 
a little the glitter of the objects by blending all these har- 
monies of gold in a kind of very gentle shadow ; in its 
silence and solitude one might call it the enchanted 
dwelling of some Sleeping Beauty^ of a princess of an un- 
known world, or of a planet that could not be our own. 

We pass before some little interior gardens, which are, 
according to the Japanese custom, miniature reductions of 
very wild places, — unlooked-for contrasts in the centre of 
this golden palace. There also time has passed, throwing 
its emerald upon the little rocks, the tiny lakes, and the 
small abysses J exhausting the little mountains, and giving 
an appearance of reality to all that is minute and artificial. 
The trees, dwarfed by I do not know what Japanese 
process, have not grown larger; but they have taken on an 
air of extreme old age. The cycas have acquired many 
branches, because of their hundreds of years ; one would 
call the little palms of multiple trunks, antidiluvian 
plants ; or rather massive black candelabra, whose every arm 
carries at its extremity a fresh bouquet of green plumes. 

What also surprises us is the special apartment chosen 
by this Taiko-Sama, who was both a great conqueror and a 
great emperor. It is very small and very simple, and looks 
upon the tiniest, and the most artificial of the little gardens. 

The Reception Hall, which they showed me last of all, 
is the largest and the most magnificent. It is about fifty 



THE MIKADO'S PALACE 153 

metres long, and, naturally, all in golden lacquer, with a 
high and marvellous frieze. No furniture ; nothing but the 
stages of lacquer upon which the handsome lords on arriv- 
ing placed their arms. At the back, behind a colonnade, 
the platform, where Taiko-Sama held his audiences at the 
period of our Henri IV. Then it is that one dreams of these 
receptions, of these entrances of brilliant noblemen, whose 
helmets are surmounted by horns, snouts and grotesque 
figures; and all the unheard-of ceremonial of this court. 
One may dream of all this, but he will not clearly see it 
revive. Not only is the period too remote, but it is too 
far away in grade among the races of the earth ; it is too 
far outside of our conceptions and the notions that we 
have inherited regarding these things. It is the same in the 
old temples of this country ; we look at them without un- 
derstanding ; the symbols escape us. Between Japan and 
ourselves the difference of origin has made a deep abyss. 

" We shall cross another hall," the bonze said to me, 
" and then a series of passages that will lead us to the 
temple of the palace." 

In this last hall there are some people, which is a sur- 
prise, as all the former ones were empty ; but silence dwells 
there just the same. The men squatting all around the 
walls seem very busy writing ; they are priests copying 
prayers with tiny pencils on rice-paper to sell to the people. 
Here, upon the golden background of the walls, all the 
paintings represent royal tigers, a little larger than their nat- 
ural size, in all attitudes of fury, of watching, of the hunt, 



154 JAPAN 

of prowling, or of sleep. Above these motionless bonzes 
they lift their great heads, so expressive and wicked, show- 
ing their sharp teeth. 

My guide bowed on entering. As I am among the most 
polite people in the world, 1 feel obliged to bow also. Then 
the reverence that was accorded to me passes all along the 
hall, and we go through. 

Passages obstructed with manuscripts and bales of prayers 
are passed, and we are in the temple. It is, as I expected, 
of great magnificence. Walls, ceilings, columns, all is in 
golden lacquer, the high frieze representing leaves and 
bunches of enormous peonies, very full blown and sculp- 
tured with so much skill that they seem ready to drop their 
leaves at the least breath to fall in a golden shower upon the 
floor. Behind a colonnade, in the darkest place, are the 
idols and emblems, in the midst of all the rich collection of 
sacred vases, incense-burners, and torch-bearers. 

Just now it is the hour of Buddhist service. In one of 
the courts, a gong, with the deep tones of a double-bass, 
begins to ring with extreme deliberation. Some bonzes in 
robes of black gauze with green surplices make a ritualistic 
entrance, the passes of which are very complicated, and 
then they go and kneel in the centre of the sanctuary. 
There are very few of the faithful ; scarcely two or three 
groups, which seem lost in this great temple. There are 
some women lying on the matting, having brought their 
little smoking-boxes and their little pipes ; they are talking 
in very low voices and smothering the desire to laugh. 




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THE MIKADO'S PALACE 155 

However, the gong begins to sound more rapidly and the 
priests to make low bows to their gods. It sounds still 
faster, and the bonzes quicken their bows, while the priests 
prostrate themselves upon their faces. 

Then, in the mystic regions something happens that re- 
minds me very much of the elevation of the host in the Ro- 
man cult. Outside the gong, as if exasperated, sounds 
with rapid strokes, uninterruptedly and frantically. 

I believe that I have seen everything now in this palace; 
but I still do not understand the disposition of the halls, the 
plan of the whole. If alone, I should soon become lost in 
it, as if in a labyrinth. 

Happily, my guide comes to take me out, after having 
put my shoes on me himself. Across new halls of silence, 
passing by an old and gigantic tree, which has miraculous 
properties, it seems, having for several centuries protected 
this palace from fire, he conducted me through the same gate 
by which I had entered and where my djin are waiting for 
me. 



THE INLAND SEA 

AIME HUMBERT 

THE Inland Sea of Japan is bounded by the southern 
coasts of Nippon, and the northern coasts of Kiu- 
shiu and Shi-koku. It is, however, more like a 
canal than a real Mediterranean Sea, being a communication 
established at the height of the thirty-fourth degree of north 
latitude, between the Chinese Sea, or more strictly, of the 
Strait of Korea on the western coast of Japan, and the great 
ocean which washes the southern and eastern shores of the 
same archipelago. The whole of the Japanese Mediterra- 
nean is sometimes known as the Sea of Souwo. 

The Japanese Mediterranean, like the European sea so 
called, is divided into several basins. They are five in 
number, and are named from the most important of the 
provinces which overlook them, so that the Inland Sea bears 
five different names throughout its longitudinal course from 
west to east. 

In the midst of the natural wealth which surrounds them, 
the large, industrious, and intelligent population of the 
country parts of Japan have for their entire possessions only 
a humble shed, a few working implements, some pieces of 
cotton cloth, a few mats, a cloak of straw, a little store of 
tea, oil, rice, and salt ; for furniture, nothing but two or 

156 



THE INLAND SEA 157 

three cooking utensils ; in a word, only the strict necessaries 
of existence. The uniformity of the rustic dwellings is 
broken by temples, but they are to be distinguished at a dis- 
tance only by the vast dimensions of their roofs, and by the 
imposing effect of the ancient trees which are almost always 
to be found in their vicinity. 

On entering the basin of Hiogo, we came in sight of a 
town of some importance, on the coast of Shi-koku ; it is 
called Imabari. A vast sandy beach, which is rarely to be 
found in Japan, stretched back to a kind of suburb, in which 
we could discern a busy concourse of people, apparently car- 
rying on a market business. Above the strand were fertile 
plains, whose undulating lines were lost in the mist at the 
foot of a chain of mountains bathed in sunshine. The prin- 
cipal peaks of this chain — Kori-yama, Yafatzowsen, and 
Siro Yama- — are from 1,000 to 1,600 yards in height. 

We anchored in a bay of the island of Souyousima, at 
the southern point of the province of Bitsiou, and at the 
entrance of the basin of Arima. We were surrounded by 
mountains, at whose feet twinkled many lights shining in 
from houses. The stillness was unbroken save by the dis- 
tant barking of dogs. Next morning, April 24, very early, 
we were ploughing the peaceful waters of the Arimanado. 
This basin is completely closed on the east by a single 
island, which divides it from the Idsouminada by a length 
of thirty miles. It is in the form of a triangle, whose apex, 
turned towards the north, faces the province of Arima, on 
the island of Nippon. This is the beautiful island of 



158 JAPAN 

Awaji, which was the dwelling-place of the gods and the 
cradle of the national mythology of the Japanese. The 
lowlands at the southern extremity are covered with a lux- 
uriant vegetation, and the soil rises gently into cultivated or 
wooded hills until they touch the boundaries of a chain of 
mountains from 300 to 700 yards in height. 

The greater number of the steamers which cross the Japa- 
nese Mediterranean from west to east, pass from the basin of 
Arima into that of Idsoumi, where they generally touch at 
the important commercial town of Hiogo; and from thence 
they enter the great ocean by the Strait of Linschoten. 
That passage of Naruto which leads directly from the basin 
of Arima into the great ocean is shorter than the former ; 
it is, however, much less frequented, because it is consid- 
ered a dangerous channel for high-decked vessels. 

We saw the coasts drawing nearer and nearer to us, as 
we descended, towards the south-west corner of this tri- 
angular piece of land. At the same time a promontory of 
the island of Shi-koku rose above the horizon on our right, 
and seemed to stretch continuously onward in the direction 
of Awaji. Very soon we found ourselves in a passage 
from whence we could distinctly see the beautiful vegeta- 
tion of the coast of Shi-koku and the coast of Awadsi. At 
length we saw the gates of the Strait ; on the left, rocks 
surmounted by pines, forming the front of the island of 
Awaji J on the right, a solitary rock, or islet, also bearing 
a few pines, forming the front of the , island of Shi-koku. 
Between them the sea, like a bar of breakers, though the 



THE INLAND SEA 159 

weather was calm : afar, the undulating ocean, without a 
speck of foam ; the tossing of the waves in the passage be- 
ing solely the result of the violence of the current. All 
around us, on the waves and at the foot of the rocks, were 
thousands of sea-birds, screaming, fluttering, and diving for 
the prey which the sea, stirred to its depths by the current, 
was perpetually tossing up to them. Several fishing-boats 
were out, not on the canal — that would have been impos- 
sible — but behind the rocks, in the creeks of the little soli- 
tary islet and of Shi-koku. 

Below Awaji, the united waters of the two straits of 
Naruto and Linschoten form the canal of Kino, which 
washes the shores of the province of Awa, on Shi-koku, and 
of the province of Kisou on Nippon. We sailed for some 
time yet in sight of the latter ; then the land disappeared 
from our eyes, and we soon perceived, by the wide rolling 
motion of the waves, that we were on the outer sea, in the 
immense domain of the great ocean. 

I occupied myself, during the whole evening, in recalling 
the recollections of my journey ; and I could find nothing 
out of Switzerland to compare with the effect of the beau- 
tiful Japanese scenery. Since then, several Japanese, 
travelling in Switzerland, have told me that no other coun- 
try awakened so vividly the remembrance of their own. Still 
more frequently I transported myself in fancy to one or 
other of the archipelagoes of the Souwanda, earnestly desir- 
ing the advent of that hour when the breath of liberty will 
give them, in the Far East, the importance which formerly 



i6o JAPAN 

belonged, in Europe, to the Archipelago of our Mediterra 
nean. 

They cannot be blended into a general impression. 
Nothing is less uniform than the scenery of the shores of 
the Inland Sea. It is a series of pictures which vary infi- 
nitely, according to the greater or less proximity of the 
coasts, or to the aspect of the islands on the horizon. 
There are grand marine scenes, where the lines of the sea 
blend with sandy beaches sleeping under the golden rays of 
the sun ; while in the distance, the misty mountains form 
a dim background. There are little landscapes, very clear, 
trim, and modest : a village at the back of a peaceful bay, 
surrounded by green fields, over which towers a forest of 
pines ; just as one may see by a lake in the Jura on a fine 
morning in June. 

Sometimes, when the basins contracted, and the islands 
in front seemed to shut us in, I remembered the Rhine 
above Boppart. The Japanese scenery is, however, more 
calm and bright than the romantic landscapes to which I 
allude. The abrupt slopes, the great masses of shade, the 
shifting lines, are replaced by horizontal levels ; by a beach, 
a port, and terraces ; in the distance are rounded islands, 
sloping hills, conical mountains. These pictures have their 
charms : the imagination, no less than the eye, rests in the 
contemplation of them ; but it would seek in vain that 
melancholy attraction which, according to the notions of 
European taste, seems inseparable from the enjoyment. 

On the night of April 24, after having doubled the 



THE INLAND SEA 161 

southern point of the great island of Nippon, /. ^., the prom- 
ontory of Idsoumo, situated at the southern extremity of 
the principality of Kisou, we sailed, during the whole day 
on the 25th, with the current which the Japanese call 
Kouro-Siwo, which runs from south-west to north-east, at 
the rate of from thirty-five to forty miles a day. It is a 
current of hot-water, whose maximum temperature is thirty 
degrees Centigrade. 

The weather was fine, and the sea a shining emerald- 
green. I passed many hours on the poop, in stillness and 
vague contemplation. For the first time I enjoyed the 
pleasure of sailing. The silence which reigned on board 
added to the majestic effect of the ship, laden up to the 
summit of her masts with her triple wings of white. It 
was as though the fires had been extinguished, and the 
noise of the engines hushed, that we might present our- 
selves more respectfully at the gates of the residence of the 
Tycoons. But when night fell, the fires were lighted 
again, in case of accident ; for the land-winds frequently 
cause much trouble to the ships in the Gulf of Yedo. On 
the 26th, at daybreak, we came within sight of six small 
mountainous islands, which looked like signals set up at the 
entrance of this vast arm of the sea. 

The sun rose, and presented, amid the salt sea mists of 
the horizon, that image of a scarlet globe which forms the 
national arms of Japan. His earliest rays lighted up Cape 
Idsou, on the mainland of Nippon, whilst in the East we 
beheld the smoke of the two craters of the island of Oho- 



i62 JAPAN 

sima. At the head of a bay in the promontory of Idsou is 
situated the town of Simoda, the first, but the least impor- 
tant of the commercial places to which we come when sail- 
ing up the Gulf of Yedo. The Americans obtained an 
authorization to found an establishment there in 1854. 
Some time afterwards the harbour of Simoda was destroyed 
by an earthquake, and no mention was made of that place 
in the treaties of 1858. 

A number of fishing-boats are to be seen on the coast, 
and several thousand three-masted vessels are going to the 
mainland of Nippon and the surrounding islands. The 
scene is full of life and sparkling with brilliant and har- 
monious colour ; the wide sky is a splendid azure ; the 
pale green sea has no longer the sombre hues of the great 
deeps, but shines with the limpid brightness which char- 
acterizes it upon the rocky coasts of Japan. The isles are 
decked in the brilliant foliage of the spring ; the harsh 
brown of the rocks is streaked with shades of ochre ; and 
the white sails of the native barques, the snow-crests of 
Myakesima, and the smoke from the craters of Ohosima, 
complete the beautiful marine scene. 

Having reached the " Bay of the Mississippi," we made 
out, for the first time, the summit of Fusiyama, the 
" Matchless Mountain," an extinct volcano nearly 13,000 
feet above the level of the sea. It is fifty nautical miles 
from the coast, on the west of the bay, and except for the 
chain of the Akoni hills at the base, completely isolated. 
The effect of this immense solitary pyramid, covered with 



THE INLAND SEA 163 

eternal snow, surpasses description. It lends inexpressible 
solemnity to the scenery of the Bay of Yedo, already more 
sombre than that of the gulf, by reason of the closer prox- 
imity of the shores, the somewhat sandy hue of the sea- 
water, and the immense quantity of cedars, pines, and other 
dark-foliaged trees which crown the crests of all the hills 
along the coast. 

At length we double Point Treaty, a picturesque prom- 
ontory where the convention between Commodore Perry 
and the Commissioners of the Tycoon was signed ; and all 
of a sudden, behind this promontory, we see the quays and 
the city of Yokohama stretching along a marshy beach, 
bounded on the south and west by a ring of wooded hills. 
A score of ships of war and merchant vessels, English, 
Dutch, French, and American, are lying out in the roads, 
almost opposite the " foreign quarter," which may be easily 
recognized by its white houses and its consular flags. 
Native junks are lying at anchor at some distance from the 
jetties of the port and the storehouses of the Custom 
House. We pass by these slowly, and steam at half speed 
in front of the Japanese city, in which all the houses, ex- 
cept a certain number of shops, are built of wood, and seem 
to have only one story above the ground floor. 

When we had come opposite to the Benten quarter, situ- 
ated at the extremity of the beach of Yokohama, and at the 
mouth of a wide river, our corvette anchored, near the 
Dutch Legation, which was at that time (1874), the only 
European residence in that part of Yokohama. 



IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 

ANDRt BELLESSORT 

WE were at Kobe, and our djins took us to the 
Cascades, one of the most popular promenades 
in the city. They set us down in front of a 
tea-house where two courteous Japanese, whose easy ways 
showed that they were used to Europeans, hastened to 
meet us with a smile upon their lips, and saluting us with a 
" Good-morning ! " invited us to refresh ourselves and ex- 
hibited no ill-humour when we refused. The sky had 
clouded over. We followed the windings of a path that 
crept up under the red maples and dark pines. As we as- 
cended, I listened to catch the fall of running water. One 
could hardly be hindered from hearing it, since there were 
no other cascades except a brook that rippled over sloping 
rocks. But our most able contrivers of picturesque spots 
could not have done anything more with this silent little 
gorge. Here everything contributed to delight the stroller 
and distract his steps. Two wooden restaurants with their 
galleries faced the little cascade and the second was reached 
only by passing through the first. The low tables, covered 
with matting and red material served at will as seats and 
platforms. Grated niches, in which gods puffed out their 
gheeks like infants gorged with milk, sanctified the land^ 

164 




o 



IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 165 

scape. Their white streamers fluttered among the verdure, 
and their half twilight was starred with pale glowing wicks. 
The path did not run blindly along. Its windings, for 
every one of which there was a reason, brought into view 
in succession an old twisted trunk, extravagant roots, a 
space of sky framed by green branchings, and the course 
of the ravine between two clumps of trees. At the most 
pleasing spots, curiosity and souvenir shops displayed their 
assortment of canes, pen-holders, goblets, paper-weights 
and photographs. Five thousand leagues from Europe, I 
found the little Chamounix tradesmen and their trashy 
shell boxes. Are then the Japanese the Swiss of the Far 
East ? And among so many officers and engineers sent to 
our schools, may they not have sent colporters and inn- 
keepers to our watering-places and warm springs in order 
to learn there how at the same time to exploit the tourist 
and engineer Nature ? 

On this desert road in this dead season, we met only one 
Japanese family, composed of two old people and a young 
woman whose child was trying its first steps. The grand- 
mother whose eyebrows were shaved off and teeth black- 
ened, and the grandfather, whose leanness, angular and 
shrivelled face and neck afflicted with a nascent goitre, of- 
fered a vague resemblance to the marabou-stork, were 
squatting in the middle of the road holding out their arms 
to the motley mite that tottered towards them protected by 
his mother's extended sleeves like two great drooping wings. 
The young woman, rosy and chubby, made the hill that 



i66 JAPAN 

winter had abandoned echo with that laughter of trium- 
phant joy with which maternal lips wake the echoes in the 
four quarters of the globe. 

Just as the exotic flavour of this picture gave its ancient 
legend only a slight tinge of novelty, so Nature in Japan 
did not appear to me as an unpublished work of the Creator. 
She is pretty, hospitable, and happy in her mountains 
bathed in a subtle light that gives value to the distances. 
When necessary, she knows how to enhance her coquetry, 
with a Savoyard negligence. Sometimes her hair falls over 
her eyes, but she smiles through it. Perhaps I should re- 
proach her with some monotony in the unforeseen, some 
preparation in her surprises. She has too often been told 
that she is adorable ; she has been feted too much ; she has 
been too often taught the value of the odd little things of 
fancy that she produces, and of which ordinarily she does 
not show herself so careful. And it is in ransom of so 
much grace that, particularly when we want to celebrate 
her, we forget her maternal sweetness in order to retain 
nothing but her artistic virtuosity. 

What did I think of the Japanese towns and their in- 
habitants ? Invisible interviewer, listen tome: the towns 
are frightful and their inhabitants mock at our aesthetics. 
The luminous beauty oi" the roadsteads, their amphitheatre 
of hills dotted with chalets and temples, the truncated pyra- 
mid of Mount Fuji which lifts high into the sky its distant 
and sacred snow, those perspectives which winter scarcely 
discolours and does not wither render only more unbearable 



IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 167 

the jumble of smutty huts that is presented to our sight by 
a Japanese town. 

I shall long remember my entry into Kobe. The streets 
of the European concession, deserted and dewy in the cold 
dawn had the tranquil physiognomy of provincial streets. 
The consulate flags floated over this Western sub-prefec- 
ture. Little by little, from the native quarter, a noise 
reached us and increased, — a noise of wooden shoes ham- 
mering the hardened ground. This town, in which we 
were commencing our wanderings and which extended 
farther than the eye could see, produced the effect of an 
agglomeration of rather miserable villages bordering uneven 
and rutty roads. The very low houses, generally latticed 
and set upon the ground, resembled human habitations less 
than poultry-yards and rabbit-hutches. Their roofs of 
planks or tiles have superimposed projections, and each is 
surrounded or prolonged by tiny dependencies that look like 
hen-houses, so that, to form an idea of a Japanese street, a 
rising street seen from above or below, it would be almost 
sufficient to imagine a bad road on each side of which pack- 
ing cases of all sizes had been allowed to roll over one an- 
other. Most of the shops are kept by women. But care 
in the display hardly corresponds to the importance of the 
merchandise. The most vulgar trifle is prominently pre- 
sented, while the art objects and rich stuffs hide themselves 
and flee from the light of day. 

Around us, kurumayas^ clothed in blue drawers and 
an open blouse on which big geometrical designs are traced 



i68 JAPAN 

in white, some wearing a Russian cap and others Annamite 
hats, seated between the shafts of their cart chillily wrap 
themselves in the red covering with which they swathe the 
traveller's- feet. I should have taken them for moujiks but 
for being shod with straw sandals and their head-shields re- 
calling to mind the tropical sun. Men passed by perched 
on their getas^ almost all wearing the kimono. They had 
the yellow tint and simian faces. Their teeth, half gum- 
less and irregular, furnished complicated and threatening 
mouths. The Cingalese jaw, pre-eminent as it is, does 
not attain this terrible relief. This type of man does not 
sensibly differ from that of the Tagals and Annamites. 
But, my eyes being already accustomed to the delicate con- 
formation of the Malay race, I was not struck with their 
small size. 

At first, the women, who were very numerous, discon- 
certed the ideas I had formed of them. Their costume 
approached that of the men. They walked with a springy 
little trot, with bent body, stretched neck, legs turned in 
and loins arched by a sort of cushion where the girdle is 
tied. Covered with haori^ one might think they were trav- 
elling with their litter on their back. Slightly round- 
shouldered and knock-kneed, these young hags wear heads 
of hair smeared with a brilliant varnish, stuck through or 
bristling with tortoise-shell pins which make them look 
like casques of black lacquer. Their eyes, weighed down 
by puffy lids are pressed towards the temples. Their nose and 
mouth are often pressed in between their rounded and ruddy 



IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 169 

cheeks. Their infants, baled upon their backs, look over 
their shoulders or turn their little jolting heads back to- 
wards the sky. All of them, men and women, struck by 
the fresh morning air, shrugged their shoulders and shel- 
tered their arms in the width of their ample sleeves which 
hung wide open. It was a city inhabited by a nation of 
penguins. 

In the afternoon, our guides took us to see a Shintoist 
temple. You arrive there under alleys of porticos or fixed 
bars, the transverse bar of which curves slightly like a 
ship's prow, and amid rows of wooden, stone, or bronze 
lanterns set on tall stands. The abode of the Japanese 
gods, of an Arcadian simplicity, consists of two' almost 
square pavilions, erected one behind the other and con- 
nected by a foot bridge. Their roofs, made of little laths 
which, strongly pressed together imitate thatch, rest an 
enormous weight on their polished column. The altar, 
devoid of painting or gilding, exposes to the eyes of the 
faithful no other emblems of the divinity than a clouded 
mirror and some bamboo stalks from which zigzags of 
paper lacework fall symmetrically. Before the altar, a bell 
suspended from the edge of the roof with swinging rope 
warns the god that he is wanted on earth. Women come, 
ring, bow their heads, clap their hands, mumble a short 
prayer and go away. The outside air and birds penetrate 
these sacred kiosks from every side, and the surrounding 
gardens are dotted with lanterns and large tabernacles. 
Several shells set on granite columns and four cannons 



i-jo JAPAN 

fixed at the four corners of the first pavilion, trophies of 
the last war, assume an aspect of inoffensive old rubbish in 
this rustic decoration. And under a little vi^ooden pent- 
house among the lanterns, a bronze cow lying down with 
heavy udders, notwithstanding its relation with the Egyp- 
tian divinities, had nothing imposing nor hieratic in it, but 
simply looked like a good peaceable cow that was not in 
the least symbolic. 

Porticos, lanterns, pavilions, sanctuaries, everything pre- 
sented to us the image of a religion without either mystery 
or terror, passion or voluptuousness, but one rudimentary, 
-rural, impregnated with ingenuous naturalism, capable of 
contenting the warriors of ancient days as well as labourers 
and lovers. I suspect, however, that beneath the simplicity 
of the external worship there are esoteric secrets, so that 
those sticks ornamented with streamers and that mirror did 
not pique my curiosity more than some attributes of som- 
nambulism did. 

The crowd spread around the temple and found its cus- 
tomary diversions there. Acrobats were beating the tam- 
bourine in front of a booth. Shops that sold cakes and 
candies, and the little bazaars " at fixed prices " deafened 
the customers with the noise of bells and clappers ; and 
modern inventions, even science, recruited circles of gravely 
astonished loungers. I saw some with phonographic trump- 
ets at their ears but their faces remained as imperturbable 
and their eyes as sad as if they had not heard anything. 
One charlatan had on exhibition on his table a skull, two 



IMPRESSIONS OF KOBE 171 

skeletons, anatomical casts, the intestines of which showed 
tumors painted in green, three stomachs containing tape- 
worms, and in the midst of this horrifying display a pile of 
pamphlets and a pyramid of little pill-boxes. He talked 
with dizzying volubility and with his stick alternately struck 
a stomach or a cast and pointed at the body of one of his 
numerous auditors. The good people nodded their heads, 
but it seemed to me that they were more impressed with 
the eloquence of the speaker than convinced of the advan- 
tages of his drugs. A few steps farther on, mountebanks 
with robes and sleeves turned up were juggling with 
sabres, those beautiful sabres that were the honour and 
ferocity of Japan, and which these knaves had tamed to 
the point of interrupting their jugglery to swallow them in 
the most natural way imaginable. 

And I said to myself: "Is this the eccentric land which 
has been the joy of lovers of oddity and whose porcelain 
has told us such fabulous stories ? It was dinned into my 
ears that nothing happened, here as elsewhere, and every- 
thing I see warns me of my delusion. The men are ugly, 
the women ridiculously garbed, but their way of amusing 
themselves does not differ from ours in the least.'* 

So, more simple perhaps in my disenchantment than 
others in their amiable craze, I committed innocent sacri- 
lege towards Japan ! 



A 



MIYANOSHITA 

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 

BOUT fifty miles away from Yokohama, along the 
sea-shore, and then by a sharp turn into the high- 
lands which are grouped around Fuji-San, lies 
embosomed the lovely and salubrious Japanese health re- 
sort, whence I am writing this. Fifteen hundred feet above 
the Pacific and the hot plains, we have escaped hither, for 
a time, shunning the now somewhat sultry weather of the 
capital and its ubiquitous mosquitoes, which are more 
bloodthirsty and importunate in Tokio than anywhere. 
The Ka^ bred in the rice-fields and ditches of Nippon, is 
truly a most relentless and insatiable little pest, against 
which natives and foreigners equally defend themselves 
with kaya or nets of green muslin, made either large enough 
to cover a European four-poster, or small enough to place 
over a sleeping baby. At this season of the year you may 
indeed see hundreds of tiny brown Japanese infants sleep- 
ing, stark naked, beneath what looks like a green meat-safe, 
where the flies and mosquitoes cannot get at them. Not 
only the babies, moreover, but their fathers, mothers, " sis- 
ters, cousins, and aunts," and the Japanese world in 
general, largely discard clothing as the July heats come on ; 
and, in the country especially, one sees at this time moreot 

172 



MIYANOSHITA 173 

the people — in a very literal sense — than during the cooler 
weather. One result is to disclose the really splendid il- 
lustrations with which a great many of the men are adorned 
by the tattooer. T^hejinrih-sha pullers in particular are oft- 
times gorgeously pictorial from nape to heel, and you may 
study for an hour the volutes, arabesques, flowers, gods, 
dragons, and poetical inscriptions on the back of your 
coolie as you bowl along, without exhausting the wealth of 
design and colouring upon the saffron surface of his skin. 
The journey hither from Yokohama leads by railway 
through interminable rice-fields lying between the hills and 
the sea, all the spare patches now "green as grass" with 
the sprouting roots of the ine. Last year Inare, the deity 
of the rice plant gave Japan a bad harvest, and the poor are 
greatly suffering in consequence. But this year all looks 
well for a bumper crop, and the purple and silver of the 
iris and lily-clumps — everywhere at present blossoming — 
fringe verdant squares of exuberant promised plenty, where 
the great dragon-flies buzz, and the frogs croak all day 
long. A run of two hours brings you past Kamakura, the 
region of the old glories of the warlike house — which ruled 
Japan from 1192 a. d., to the middle of the Fifteenth Cen- 
tury — past Enoshima, the ever beautiful " Isle of Dragons,'* 
to Kodzu, where you take a tramcar, and bump through 
the town of Odawara to Yumoto village, whence the ascent 
to Miyanoshita commences. The ladies and the luggage 
ride up the three miles of hilly road in kuruma drawn by 
two men, no-nim-biki. The gentlemen, glad of a little 



174 JAPAN 

rural walk after the hot streets of Tokio, breast the ascent 
on foot. We reach Miyanoshita just as the lights begin to 
twinkle in the windows of the two hotels which receive the 
innumerable visitors to this green and pleasant glen. A hot 
spring, slightly mineral, has created Miyanoshita, affording 
perpetual and pleasant bathing; and the air, whether it 
breathes from the sea below or from the thickly-wooded 
hills above, is always fresh and pleasant. 

To inhale that air, and to bathe in the soft waters heated 
for you in the subterranean furnances, are the main business 
of life in this hill village. The only industry of the place, 
apart from guides, tea-houses, and waiting musumh^ is the 
manufacture of all kinds of small articles from the wood of 
the various timber trees growing on the hills around. Some of 
these are of incredible ingenuity in construction and neatness 
of finish, making the most elaborate work of Tunbridge 
Wells utterly commonplace. Many of the woods em- 
ployed, such as the camphor, the ivy, the kaki^ kari and 
sendan^ are of great beauty, and there seems to be almost 
nothing that a Japan turner cannot produce from them. He 
sells you, for a few sen^ a box of ivy-wood delicately 
grained and polished, containing a dozen lovely little sau- 
cers of the same material ; or a lunch-box which folds into 
next to nothing until you want it, and then expands into a 
complete and handsome table service. Sellers of photo- 
graphs are also numerous, and softly importunate, for the 
Japanese have become very skilful with the camera. 
When you have purchased all the photographs and wooden 



MIYANOSHITA 175 

nicknacks which you desire, the next thing is to organize 
excursions into the wild and beautiful wilderness of moun- 
tains everywhere surrounding you. These must be per- 
formed either on foot or on chairs lashed on bamboo poles, 
and carried upon the shoulders of four of the sturdy hill 
men of the district. The paths are very steep and narrow, 
and the foothold very often merely the loose stones of a 
mountain stream. Yet the sturdy ninsoku, trudge along, 
up hill and down dale, in their sandals of rope, apparently 
insensible to fatigue, or sufficiently refreshed from time to 
time by a cup of pale tea and a sugar biscuit, and willingly ac- 
cepting fifty sen^ or about eighteen pence, for a tremendous 
day's work. With a thin blue calico coat, a blue handker- 
chief tied around the close-cropped head, and their small 
brass tobacco pipes stuck in their girdles, they chatter gaily 
as they trot along under the bamboo poles, shifting these 
every now and then from shoulder to shoulder with a little 
harmonious murmur of " Go-issho," which means " at the 
same honourable time," /'. ^., " all together, boys." Ar- 
rived at the tea-house, they patiently pick from their legs 
the leeches which have fastened there in the wet and nar- 
row forest paths, wipe the profuse perspiration from their 
brown necks, smoke a pipe or two, and slowly sip a cup of 
the " honourable hot tea," and are then ready to trudge on 
again for another ri under their heavy burdens. 

Charming and instructive beyond description are some 
of the expeditions which may thus be undertaken from 
Miyanoshita as a centre, the hills containing all sorts of 



176 JAPAN 

natural wonders, as well as being of wonderful beauty in 
regard of scenery. We made two out of many favourite 
explorations yesterday and the day before; on the first oc- 
casion to the mountain lake of Hakone, on the second to 
no less formidably-named a spot than " the Great Hell " — 
O Jigoku. The general character of the country being 
the same, I will make one description serve for the impres- 
sions of the two journeys. 

The Hakone Mountains are for the most part intensely 
green in aspect, " darkly, deeply, beautifully green " — of a 
green to make an artist despair, it is so magnificently 
monotonous, and beyond imitation by the palette. This 
results principally from the long bamboo grass everywhere 
growing over the highland country, which, though it rises 
to the height of eight or ten feet, presents the appearance 
of an unbroken verdant mantle of herbage rolling in light 
waves before the wind. The trees — chiefly beech, fir of 
various kinds, and oak — grow at one time sparsely, at 
another in extensive groves, from the jungle of the dwarf 
bamboo ; intermixed with which are a few inconspicuous 
wild flowers — white andromedas and spiraes, yellow lilies, 
wild hydrangea, dog roses, and the Canterbury bell. 
Little or no animal life is to be seen ; the cover seems too 
dense for four-footed creatures, but on the less-wooded 
mountains the fox and badger exist, and there are deer, 
wild boar, and monkeys of a single species, to be found 
not far off^. A lark — almost exactly identical with the 
English species — sings the familiar carol as we pass, and 



MIYANOSHITA 177 

an oriole, which flutes very sweetly, is seen and heard ; 
but the general silence of the mountains is remarkable and 
almost unbroken, except by the noise of streams every- 
where descending. Some of these smoke in the cool hill- 
side air, and discolour the stones with sulphurous or 
mineral deposits, notably at Ko-ji-go-ku, near to Ashi- 
no-yu, where some of us enjoyed the luxury of hot sulphur 
baths, and found them immensely refreshing in the middle 
of a long walk. The central spot, however, for witnessing 
this kind of phenomenon is at the "Great Hell" itself, 
near to the pass of O Tomi Toge, from which a glorious 
view is obtained of the ever wonderful Fuji-San. There 
was nothing to indicate that we were approaching a spot to 
justify the name given to this place, except the sudden ap- 
pearance of many large dead trees, which had been killed 
by the fatal breath emanating from the solfataras near. 
The hillside at large spreads on either hand as fair and 
green as before, with waving bamboo grass and silvery 
flowers of the deutzia., and white bells of the Japan 
anemone. The earliest intimation was by the nostrils, 
which become abruptly aware of odours distinctly infernal j 
and on reaching a solitary farmhouse you come in sight of 
a torrent, running over black and speckled rocks, on a bed 
yellow as the rind of an orange. The ladies must now 
leave their chairs and toil by a steep ascent round a 
shoulder of the valley, from which issues this Japanese 
Styx ; and by a perilous and broken path, winding now 
through the thickets, now along the brink of a crumbling 



178 JAPAN 

precipice, we come suddenly in sight of a gully, destitute 
of every shred of vegetation, and hideous vi^ith all the 
Cocytian colours associated with flame and smoke, death 
and desolation, ruin and ravage. It is a corner of the 
world abandoned to despair — a mountain hearth on fire — 
which one beholds; a nook of nature whence everything 
lovely and living has been banished to give vent to the 
secret forces of the under world. The earth all around is 
poisoned and parti-coloured with livid blotches and 
gangrenes ; the rocks are crusted with a leprous tetter ; 
pimples and ulcers of purple and black and yellow break 
out from the level spaces. Some of these are alive with 
an evil activity, and hiss and fume and bubble, emitting jets 
of fat yellow and green smoke, with now and then a 
crackling noise when the crust sinks in, to open by and by 
at another black and yellow gash in the diseased ground. 
It is not safe even to stand near the melancholy amphi- 
theatre where reek these caldrons of Acheron. To pass 
along the black edge of the stream itself and into this ghastly 
corry would be rash in the extreme, for no one knows 
where the surface may not yield, and suddenly plunge the 
foot or limb into a bath of boiling sulphur. A lady of our 
acquaintance was severely burned here some time ago, and 
a Russian officer lost his life in the treacherous morass of 
flame. 

I am requested by an amiable and charming young lady 
of our party to inscribe upon her bamboo staff the Japanese 
name of the place — which she will certamly never visit 



MIYANOSHITA 179 

again — together with some suitable record. Sitting out of 
reach of the winds from Hades, under a great cryptomeria, 
blasted by its neighbourhood, I carve on the Japanese 
alpenstock a verse which she means to preserve : — 

" Staff, which to O Jigoku went, 
Good news to Sinners tell; 
Demons may climb to Paradise, 
Now angels walk to Hell." 

And yet, just over the ridge, spreads a scene as beautiful as 
that just quitted is forbidding. On the slopes of the O 
Tomi Pass box-trees and the milky-blossomed asemi^ with 
the pines and bamboos, the azaleas and lilies, make the 
mountain fair and glad again ; and Fuji-San is seen tower- 
ing up in perfect beauty at the end of a vast valley. The 
snow is almost gone from the Lady of Mountains. Just 
here and there are visible, if I might quote my own new 
poem, the " Light of the World " : — 

«* Dark hollows where sad winter hides away 
From summer, with the snow still in her lap." 

By another path the matchless mount may be seen looking 
down upon the deep waters of Hakone — a great lake of 
unknown depth, and perpetual coldness, lying two thou- 
sand feet above the sea. Hakone Lake has for its Japanese 
name Toshi-no-Midzu-Umi^ or the "water of the reeds," 
and is a very beautiful highland sea, the abode, it is said, of 
supernatural beings, till a Buddhist priest penetrated these 



i8o JAPAN 

recesses and gave to the world knowledge and possession 
of lovely and cool Hakone. We drink to the pious 
memory of Mangwan Shonin as we sit in the upper gallery 
of the tea-house looking over the rolling blue wavelets of 
the lake. Close by Japanese woodmen are cutting fir-trees 
into thin boards, to make ori^ the boxes in which sweet- 
meats and cakes are presented. We return in drenching 
rain, but well rewarded for this and for all our exertions by 
the splendid scenery and the countless objects of interest 
on the road. Perhaps it would not have rained if we had 
remembered to put some stones in the lap of the great rock 
image of Jizo, whom we passed in accomplishing the 
ascent. He is the god of travellers and the protector of 
children, and the correct thing is to pay him the little at- 
tention alluded to. As we wend homewards through the 
picturesque village of Kiga, we stop to look again at the 
wonderful fish in the gardens of a tea-house near at hand. 
Swimming about in a pool under a little waterfall there are 
exhibited some hundreds of variegated carp — the Japanese 
Koi — which are of every imaginable brilliancy of colour — 
purple, russet, citron, safFron, orange, rose-red, gold and 
silver. They are tamer than any pigeons, and come vo- 
raciously to the bank to be fed, scrambling for slices of 
bean-cake, and putting their gold and brown noses high out 
of the water in their struggles to secure the morsel. When 
a piece of cake falls on the dry rock, near the water, they 
try to throw themselves on shore, and even use their fins 
for legs in their eagerness to obtain the prize. The fish 



MIYANOSHITA 181 

in the opening story of the Arabian Nights^ who were 
coloured blue, yellow, white, and red, and who talked in 
the frying-pan, could not have been more marvellous in 
hue, and certainly not more intelligent. 



IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 

JAPAN is a land of mountains, and the Japanese pas- 
sionately admire, and vastly delight in the beautiful 
highlands which diversify their Empire. Twelve- 
thirteenths of its surface are indeed totally withdrawn from 
cultivation, either by the broken character of the country, 
or the prevalence on the uplands and ranges of dense un- 
dergrowth of bamboo-grass and wild thicket, which nothing 
can clear away. Except in small patches, therefore, where 
circumstances are favourable to an energetic agriculture, 
the Japanese regard and employ their mountains chiefly as 
delights to the eye and pleasant refuges from the sultry 
weather which is now bathing the plains in a burning, op- 
pressive atmosphere. The sea coasts at this season are as 
hot as the inland plains, or hotter, and there is thus an al- 
most universal exodus of people from the cities, towns, and 
villages to the innumerable places of retreat perched amid 
the green and lovely hills of Nippon. The fashion among 
the middle and lower classes of the people is to go as pil- 
grims. Dressed in white haori^ white drawers, and white 
leggings — that colour betokening penitence for past sins, 
and a resolution, more or less earnest, to turn over a new 
leaf of the book of life — the citizen starts forth with a 

182 



IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 183 

coloured flag, a staff, a small satchel, and a straw hat, 
marked with the symbol of his sect, for some favoured spot, 
high among the hills, where he can unite a little devotion 
with a great deal of pure, cool air, delightful scenery, and 
constant bathing. He needs not to carry, and he does not 
carry, any luggage. His bare feet want no newly-washed 
tabi. At every yadoya he will be supplied with a clean 
kimono for his bath and dinner, with futons to sleep upon, 
and with the simple food, supplemented by the eternal 
gozen (the tub of boiled rice), which is all he needs, for an 
extremely small sum per diem. Europeans are naturally, 
and not improperly, overcharged at such resorts, since they 
prove ofttimes difficult guests ; but we — a party of six — 
have lately paid a bill at the native inn of this place for four 
days' board and lodging, together with washing and plenty 
of fresh milk, which did but amount to eleven yen, or 
about thirty-four shillings. With such cheap and pleasant 
arrangements everywhere existing, the Japanese people 
move about their beautiful land in great numbers during 
the summer and early autumn, mostly on foot. They are 
in truth a nation of pedestrians, at least as regards the 
lower classes, and shuffle along with their wooden clogs or 
grass sandals over an astonishing deal of ground. Many 
railway lines run along the coasts or through the lowlands, 
carrying passengers easily and quickly, if not with very 
great comfort, in the crowded third-class carriages, to the 
foot of many a splendid range of mountains. Then it is 
but to mount with a stout step to some village nestled 



i84 JAPAN 

three or four thousand feet above the rice-fields, where heat 
and mosquitoes are left behind, and the boundless verdure 
of the rolling hills, rich with a hundred flowers, restores 
mind and body. 

Above all, your Japanese loves those spots in the moun- 
tains where a hot spring issues from the rocks and can be 
utilized for baths more or less medicinal. Ikao, whither 
we have lately repaired, is a good specimen of such a place. 
From a lovely glen in the cleft of a ridge there issues here 
a thin but strong stream of warm water, so impregnated 
with sulphites of iron and soda that it colours all its chan- 
nel a bright golden-yellow, as it bubbles and smokes down- 
ward to lose itself in the larger torrents. Such a gift from 
the subterranean world — ^and such gifts abound — almost 
always creates in Japan a town or village for its due enjoy- 
ment. Ikao climbs up the mountain along side its precious 
rillet of the " O Yu " in a street of stone stairs more pre- 
cipitous and picturesque than any in Malta; and all the 
inns and most of the houses lead a private trickle of the 
hot spring through bamboo pipes into a bath-house, where, 
three or four times a day, visitors or residents sit up to their 
necks in the soft embrace of the liquid heated for them in 
the underground furnaces of our Planet. There is much 
simplicity and very little concealment about the system of 
these Japanese spas. The business of the place is to 
bathe, and, with or without garments, everybody is always 
bathing, as always the golden water is bubbling down from 
the dark rocks which are overshadowed with all kinds of 



IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 185 

strange trees, and clad with ferns, squills, wild clematis, and 
the Canterbury bell, called here " chochin no hana^'' the 
lantern-flower. 

Our party of six, including the two Japanese ladies, 
mounted to Ikao by a long string oi jinrikl-shas^ each drawn 
by two men. The ascent occupies four hours, and the ku- 
rumayas stop twice or thrice to refresh. Sharply the little 
vehicles wheel around at the front of the chaya ; the mu- 
sumes rsiise a chorus of irrashais ; the travellers dismount and 
sip tea or barley-water ; the ri^i-sba-men wring the perspi- 
ration from their headcloths and coats, wash down their tat- 
tooed bodies with cold water, rinse out their mouths, eat a 
bowl of rice soaked with hot tea, and are ready again for a 
long spell of uphill work. In the heart of the hills kurumas 
cannot pass, and you must tramp afoot to the many lovely 
spots of interest, or ride in the kago^ a contrivance of luxu- 
rious ease for the native, but of swiftly-increasing torture 
to the foreigner. It is like the lid of a big basket suspended 
on a stout bamboo, and you must sit on your feet, or cross 
them against the slings of the kago — either position speedily 
resolving itself for the inexperienced into something be- 
tween paralysis and the rack. For the most part, there- 
fore, during the many and delightful excursions made from 
Ikao as a centre our kagos followed us empty, for even our 
fair Japanese companions proved excellent pedestrians, and 
tripped and glittered through the winding woods and over 
the wild moorlands, clad every day in some new and bright 
kimono^ which made them look like butterflies or birds. 



i86 JAPAN 

Thus, taking each day our ample tiffin to enjoy in some 
lovely sylvan recess, some ancient temple, or by the music and 
coolness of some lovely cascade, we visited Benten-no-taki, 
the waterfall of the Goddess of Mercy ; Kompira Yama, 
the Hill of the Gods, whence half Japan seemed to stretch 
out, green and tranquil, at our happy feet ; Mizu-sawa, 
where we lunched at the foot of the altar of Buddha, under 
carvings of scarlet and gold, and diapered ceilings, and tall 
black waving cryptomerias, in a spot so solemn and beautiful 
that the gods might have joined our repast ; Yumoto, the 
Glen of the Spring, greener and more gloriously decked 
with ferns and wild flowers than any Devonshire or Scot- 
tish coombe or corrie ; and, best and most beautiful of 
all, Haruna, the " Village of the God," hard to be 
reached, but worth all the fatigue of a long and steep 
tramp. 

One of the very fairest spots I have seen on this earth 
lies midway between Ikao and Haruna. It is a wooded 
ridge, commanding on either side a view of vast expanse 
and supreme beauty. To the left, opens the verdant Ha- 
runa vale, the narrow path winding down into a wilderness 
of dark majestic forests, flowery hill-sides, fantastic rocks, 
and foaming torrents ; to the right, a lovely lake sleeps in the 
green basin which was once a crater, surrounded by hills of 
wild and wonderful shapes, and moorlands painted with 
stretches of white, and red, and yellow blossoms, and patches 
of black, and purple, and saffron soil. The profusion of lilies 
growing on these level spaces was truly astonishing. We 



IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 187 

plunged through the bamboo-grass and reeds, gathering in- 
discriminately the blood-red tiger lily, the white lily, the 
crown imperial, the golden lily — peculiar to Japan — and 
now and again superb sticks of the Lilium auratum^ the 
great cream-coloured bloom, spangled with gold, and silver, 
and purple, the fragrance of which is as delicious as its 
grace of shape and hue is perfect. Our ladies came 
down the last of the hills homeward bearing not merely 
bouquets, but sheaves of the floral plunder. It was like a 
procession from a picture of Cimabue, Giotto, or Fra An- 
gelico ; and I think if their descended angels had to choose 
an earthly dress, the bright and graceful kimono and obi of O 
Fuku San and O Yoshi San would have surely appeared as 
near to the charm of a Celestial toilette as earthly fabrics 
and fashions can well go ! And, after such a long, hard 
tramp over the mountains, who can exaggerate the delights 
of the Japanese bath ? It is the first thing we all think of, 
and say, O Tu ni iketai — " I wish to go into the honourable 
hot water ! " Discarding all garments but the loose, com- 
fortable kimono,^ and even forgetting to inquire if dinner 
be ready, we troop down to the bathing-house. There a 
row of little chambers contain each an oblong tank, level 
with the sloping floor, into which, through bamboo pipes, 
the hot mineral stream jets. Its temperature is about no 
degrees, but you may modify this with buckets of cold 
water, placed at hand. The soft caress of the subterranean 
lymph seems in a moment to dissipate all bodily fatigue. 
Up to your chin in the subtly-medicated tide, you meditate 



i88 JAPAN 

placidly on the adventures of the day, the varied pictures of 
the hills, the moorland gilded with the yellow lilies, the 
chatter of the walk, half English, half Japanese. It is use- 
less to dress in the hot little furo-do. Every pore of the 
body is open, and towels are of no avail. Wrapped again 
in the kimono^ you emerge into the open air, without the 
smallest fear of catching cold, and wonder no longer that 
the whole place exists solely for the joy of dabbling perpetu- 
ally in the delicious volcanic rivulet. 

The drawback of these delectable Japanese mountains is 
their lack of animal life. Hardly a bird or beast will be 
seen or heard, and nature appears depopulated. Upon all 
the long walk to and from Haruna I did but see, apart from 
the crows and high-flying birds, one brown snake and one 
lark. One hears occasionally the uguisu^ called by flattery 
the " Japan nightingale " — known to science as the Cettria 
cantans — but its notes, though sweet, are not sustained. 
There are bears, foxes, badgers, and even deer in the Ha- 
runa jungles, and in by-gone days there were plenty of 
monkeys, but none are seen now. Possibly the dense 
clothing of the hills, which are swathed from base to sum- 
mit in tussock grass and dwarf bamboo, forbids the 
prevalence of small life. On the other hand, butterflies are 
numerous and splendid, a great black species, large as a bat, 
with bronze and green reflections, an amber and gold va- 
riety, a saffron and red, a green and gold swallow-tail, an 
abundance of brimstones, peacocks, purple Emperors, and 
red Admirals. But, as a rule, these fair vistas are desolate 



IN THE JAPANESE MOUNTAINS 189 

of that wild life which adds so much to the charm of other 
Highlands. 

From Ikao we descended the mountain slopes in a long 
line of jinriki-shas^ the men stripping to the hot work, and 
disclosing wonderful patterns of blue and red tattooing upon 
their brown, perspiring bodies. All along the foot of these 
hills lies the region of silk. Every field is full of dwarf 
mulberry -trees, and every cottage hums with the silk wind- 
ing wheel, while piles of white cocoons are spread out in 
the sun to dry. Next to the rice the silk crop of Japan is 
of chief importance, and it was curious to reflect how the 
fine threads which the country mother was winding, her 
baby at her breast, and her pipe in her mouth, would glisten 
and ^^frou frou " in Paris or London, or New York — the 
robe of some proud beauty who never heard of Ikao or Id- 
zuka. On the road I saw the loveliest lily ever beheld — 
large blossoms of the purest rose-colour, with white and 
crimson spangles on each petal. The lotus was also flow- 
ering in many places, being cultivated for food, its blossom 
very stately in size and shape, and of pure white or pink. 
At Idzuka the train receives us, and carries us round the 
range as far as Yokogawa, whence we ascend the mountains 
again to Karuizawa, nearly 4,000 feet above the hot and 
steaming plains. This station, very popular in the summer 
with foreigners and Japanese alike, sits high in the clouds 
upon a curious table-land, surrounded by picturesque hills. 
One crag, called the Cathedral Rock, really resembles very 
closely the Cathedral of Durham, and near it rises Asama 



igo JAPAN 

Yama, with steep red sides and smoking apex — a still active 
volcano, and one which everybody ascends. The signs of 
its activity are everywhere ; all the ground is covered with 
pumice and ash, and if a cutting be made you can see how, 
at intervals measured by centuries, the " Hill of the Morning 
Fires" has covered all the region with black death and des- 
olation, over which Nature and Time have slowly spread a 
growing mantle of life and verdure, to be again and again 
obliterated by an eruption. A delightful excursion made 
here on foot was to Kosei, the glen in the hills where a thin 
sulphuretted stream issues from the dark crags. There was a 
bathing-house and little yadoya there, but too remote to be 
prosperous, and the aruj'i^ the proprietor, offered us the 
whole establishment at a low price. The hill-sides were 
covered with wild raspberries of a delicate flavour, and blue 
and white with the campanula and clematis. We came 
down again to the railway, and so to Tokio, in heavy rain, 
and by a bad and broken road. 



EN AS AN AND MISAKATOGE 

NOEL BUXTON 

I NEED hardly remark that Japan is a volcanic coun- 
try, with a backbone of mountains rising, in the case 
of the famous Fuji, to over 12,000 feet. There are 
no glaciers, but snow falls on the western side so as to 
smother whole villages, and lies even in summer sometimes 
as low as 7,000 feet. Several volcanoes are active, and 
hot mineral springs are frequent, often attracting crowds of 
sufferers by their medicinal properties. High up alpine 
plants abound, and lower down are masses of lily and iris. 
The forests below are of cypress, maple, and various firs, 
while mulberries are grown for silk in the valleys. There 
are deer and bears, badgers and eagles in the forests, and 
trout in the streams. Population spreads even to the very 
inaccessible parts, and the highest peaks can be climbed 
without getting very far from native society. Things are 
much as they have been for many centuries past; and 
among country people the traveller may find strange cus- 
toms and beliefs, such as the idea that foxes and badgers 
can " possess " human beings, and be driven out by exor- 
cism. 

It was the 8th of May when, with the Rev. Walter 
Weston, F. R. G. S., Mr. H. O'Rorke, and a Japanese 

191 



192 JAPAN 

servant, I left the railway station of Kioto, the ancient 
capital. 

A few hours brought us to Gifu, a town which suffered 
terribly in the earthquake of 1891, most of the houses be- 
ing destroyed. Immediately on leaving the railway, we 
had to dispute with the police as to whether our passports 
provided for travel in the particular province we wished to 
visit. Suffice it to say that at last the police are pacified, 
jinriki-shas and coolies engaged, and we speed along the 
Nakasendo, the great mountain road from Tokio to the 
west. We pass through a forest of scattered pines, with 
grass below full of short pink azaleas growing as thick as 
blue bells or primroses in an English wood. Like level 
clouds of sunset colour they lie in broad stretches beneath 
the dark green. At night, we reach the village of Ota, 
and here I must not omit a ^qw words on that invaluable 
institution, the yadoya^ or village inn. Its wide-eaved ve- 
randa abuts on the village street, from which the rooms 
within are visible. Leaving our shoes at the entrance, we 
mount the raised or matted floor, and meet the host and 
hostess, who prostrate themselves on all fours, touching 
the ground with their foreheads between each remark. 
The host entreats, " Honourably deign to accept the use of 
my dirty apartments," and then ushers us into a scrupu- 
lously clean guest room, looking on to the back garden, a 
paradise of miniature landscapes. The room is innocent 
of the smallest attempt at furniture, but the advent of a 
foreigner and his luggage soon litters it with confusion. 



ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 193 

It is the privilege of the first arrived traveller to take first 
turn at the hot bath, without which no evening would be 
complete. It is a wooden vessel some three feet square, 
with a stove underneath, placed at the back of the house 
next the yard or garden, and surrounded by paper screens. 
The village idlers will probably be gathered to view the 
stranger in his bath ; and even if the screen should be un- 
broken, he will soon be aroused from fancied security by a 
shuffling outside the screens, then by the appearance of a 
finger through the paper, and finally of an eye applied to 
the hole. He will soon realize the notions of the country 
and cease to be annoyed. 

After the bath comes the hostess, bringing dainty bowls 
of soup, fish, eggs and rice, with chopsticks in a hand- 
painted envelope. These are supplemented with advan- 
tage by viands brought with us, and (not least important), a 
knife and spoon. After dinner the leading villagers will 
probably drop in for a chat with the hairy barbarians, and 
music (of a kind) may be had for the asking. When bed- 
time comes, quilts are piled on the floor, another rolled up 
makes a pillow, and nothing is lacking to make a comfor- 
table night. 

After some hours of alpine scenery, with snow-clad peaks 
and chalet-like houses, whose roofs were weighted with 
heavy stones to secure them against wind and snow, we 
reached our goal, the village of Nakatsugawa, from which 
it appeared that a certain peak could be climbed, never trod- 
den yet by European foot. 



194 JAPAN 

The garden of our inn, about eight yards square, afforded 
a landscape containing trees and shrubs, miniature hills, 
and streams, a waterfall, a lake with fish, a water-wheel, 
and rustic paths. Looking on to this charming prospect 
with a veranda between, was the room allotted to us. 
Beauty and interest are never failing in these country 
hostelries. 

The ascent of Ena-san, at whose base lies Nakatsugawa, 
had not yet been made by Europeans, and was now under- 
taken by my companion at the request of Professor Cham- 
berlain, with a view to the next edition of " Murray's 
Guide-book." Hence my good fortune in sharing the 
honours. 

After a wet day, during which we picked up information 
about the mountain, next morning saw us on the move at 
six o'clock. Leaving the village and crossing the rice- 
fields that surround it, we found a cloudless sky to greet 
us, and such a faultless day as so often in Japan rewards 
the traveller for his patience during a wet one. Near the 
mountain's foot we passed the Enajinsha^ or shrine of the 
mountain Ena-san. Here live the guardian priests, but the 
season for pilgrims was not yet, and no help is given to 
climbers till the summer, when the snow is melted and the 
mountain is formerly thrown open. So we were lucky to 
pick up a coolie who had been up Ena-san, and could help 
to carry our things. These were heavy, for we were pre- 
pared to camp out. Soon the ridge became so steep that 
we ascended i,ioo feet in half an hour^ and were 4,ooq 



ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 195 

feet above the sea. A break in the trees affords a view of 
steep well-wooded slopes falling down to a noisy torrent, 
while in front rose the main mass of the peak, with streaks 
of snow in the gullies or showing through the dark trees 
near the summit, and over the shoulder appeared far away 
the snow-clad cone of a giant mountain. The nearer 
charms of large white azaleas, growing under the trees, 
with dwarf bamboo around them, the roaring of torrents 
and the soft cooing of doves combined with the distant 
view to produce a charm not soon forgotten ; at this dis- 
tance of time we need not remember the painful labours of 
the ascent, during which the charm undoubtedly was for- 
gotten. 

At 5,500 feet we reached snow, and were soon plunging 
up to the knees, with many a deeper fall, for we were 
walking on a level with the branches of the pine-trees, 
whose lower stems were buried, and the snow was getting 
soft with spring sunshine. At last the summit, 7,350 feet 
high, was reached, and we found a glorious reward for the 
six hours* climb. The great ranges and mountains stood 
round us to the north from west to east, still wearing their 
snowy robes unspoilt by summer heat. There were Haku- 
san, Yarigatake (the spear peak), the smoking Asamayama, 
the Shiranesan range, and others to the due east, over which 
peeped the flattened cone of Fuji herself, sixty miles away. 
To the south was a softer expanse of lower wooded hills, 
among which could be traced two of the greatest rivers in 
Japan, forcing their way through narrow gorges, here di- 



196 JAPAN 

vided only by a single range, but destined to reach the 
Pacific eighty miles apart. They looked like silver threads 
below, so high above were we. 

Most enchanting was the prospect, and it was long be- 
fore we could bring our attention to the nearer attractions of 
a pilgrim's shrine, in which the ways and thoughts of men 
display a more interesting, if less beautiful, field of study. 
It is a wooden structure, with small images covered by an 
open roof. In front of the images is a table or altar, on 
which lie several coins, and some knives offered by crimi- 
nals who have used them in a way which needs expiation. 
Pilgrimages and offerings are the favourite form in which the 
penitent seeks forgiveness and purity. The coins had been 
lying there all the winter, so be it said to the credit of the 
priests, who might have appropriated them months 
ago. 

Strange superstitions linger in these distant spots. On 
many mountains these shrines are held specially sacred, and 
Ontakegan is the scene of weird incantations, exorcisms 
of evil spirits and ceremonies which are practically " con- 
sulting the oracle," when the medium, having thrown him- 
self into a trance, obtains answer from the spirit of the 
mountain to any question which the pilgrims wish to pro- 
pound. Possession by foxes is a common belief in many 
parts, or (in places where there are no foxes) possession by 
badgers, as in the island of Shikoku, where the badger 
walks by moonlight on his hind legs, distends his stomach, 
and drums upon it with his fore feet, producing such celes- 



ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 197 

tial music that those who meet him fall enchanted under 
his spells. 

Again the view demanded our attention, and what with 
the needs of the inner man, three hours had all too quickly 
passed when we tore ourselves from the spot, not insensible 
of the fact that, though known to numbers of Japanese pil- 
grims, to us first among Europeans had fallen the delight 
of this, perhaps the finest, panorama to be seen in Japan. 

It was dark when we reached flat ground again, and most 
welcome was the hospitality of an ancient farmhouse, where 
beast and man enjoyed the same roof. Here that excellent 
beverage, tamagoxake^ a warm concoction of eggs and rice 
wine revived us for the rest of the way. Eggs form the 
staple of the native food which a foreigner can rely on, a 
fact which we soon keenly realized, for next morning, when 
we left Nakatsugawa, and made the customary offering of 
" tea money," our bill, for the keep of four men during 
less than three days, included an item for one hundred and 
forty eggs ! 

I must pass all too rapidly over the day during which we 
crossed the range into the next valley, by the Misakatoge 
pass, of which nothing was known by Europeans, and very 
little could be learnt from the Japanese. Suffice it to say 
that the view of a deep valley between wooded mountains, 
with a dashing river shining green along its wide bed of 
white stones, seen through a dazzling foreground of pink 
and white azalea, was one which for beauty, I have never 
seen surpassed. 



igS JAPAN 

Near the village of Sonohara we came on a small shrine, 
whose majestic surroundings seemed more worthy of Nikko 
or Nara. An immense cryptomeria stood on either side of 
it, and one of these, at five feet from the ground, measured 
twenty-six feet in girth. One incident must also be told. 
At a little hamlet, where peach, cherry, and pear were still 
in blossom, the people, usually so excited at seeing a for- 
eigner, seemed quite unconcerned. We sent our native 
servant to ask one of them what they thought we were, and 
he reported this reply : " They are from a distant part of 
Japan, where the people grow to gigantic size ; " and one 
old woman, on hearing that we were foreigners, remarked : 
" That is impossible. There are no dwellers outside the 
land of great Japan." This must not be taken as an ex- 
ample of native education, but as showing that Japan is not 
yet entirely Europeanized. 

It was not till after one o'clock at night that we knocked 
at the outer shutters (for there are no doors) of an inn by 
the river-bank. The household were fast asleep j but it 
does not take long to put on what is really rational dress, 
and in a few moments master and servants were welcoming 
us as if they had been longing for our arrival. '' Deign to let 
me wash your honourable feet," " Please allow us to make 
hot food for you," " How kind of you to honour our mis- 
erable house ! " were phrases showered upon us with many 
smiles, and every possible attention. This politeness, so 
impossible to a European when rudely awakened at dead 
of night, is the more remarkable, as the Japanese believe 



ENA-SAN AND MISAKATOGE 199 

the spirit to leave the body during sleep and wander afar in 
the shape of a small black ball, and that, if the body is sud- 
denly roused, the soul may be too late to join it, and death 
will result. 

Our two days' hard walking were now to be rewarded 
by a surfeit of delightful ease. Shooting the rapids of fast 
rivers is a pleasant diversion from mountain-climbing. It 
is less laborious and more exciting, and as it is combined, 
on the Tenriugawa River, with splendid scenery, the de- 
scent of that river is an expedition to be made if possible. 
For the first half of the ninety mile journey (which takes 
altogether ten hours) the long flat-bottomed boat speeds 
swiftly down a constant succession of races and rapids, its 
bottom being flat and thin, and so built as to bend without 
breaking if it touches a rock. Each time we approach a 
rapid, the oarsmen, of whom there are four, standing up 
with long oars, strike the gunwale of the boat. The sound 
re-echoes from the cliffs on each side of the narrow gorge, 
and is supposed to call both gods and men to attention. 
Soon the current's speed increases ; we plunge headlong 
into a seething cauldron of boiling water; right in front is 
a cliff, from which we apparently cannot escape ; the boat- 
men paddle fast and deftly ; a single false motion and we 
are lost ; the waves dash over the gunwale ; but in much 
less time than these words have taken we are gliding along 
a smooth current and almost into the next rapid. 

In the intervals of calm water, there is all too little time 
to scan the glorious cliffs that rise from the river for hun- 



200 JAPAN 

dreds of feet almost straight to the skies, and are never- 
theless rich with luxuriant verdure. They, in themselves, 
would amply repay us for our journey. Pine and maple 
almost hide the precipitous rock, here in sunlight and there 
in deepest shade, while right over the river hang festoons 
of pale blue wistaria, sometimes smothering whole trees. 

Not least among the day's marvels was the astounding 
skill ot our native cooK, who with no further appliance 
than a small brass frame, a few pieces of charcoal, and a 
frying-pan, cooked various choice dishes till forbidden to 
cook any more. 

After six or seven hours through this deep and narrow 
cleft in the mountain mass, the cliffs begin insensibly to 
slope, and on the shelving shores the signs of human life 
appeared. Here and there a boat was being pulled, sailed 
or punted, or all three at once, against the strong current. 
We came down the ninety miles in ten hours, but it takes 
them ten days and more to get back up the river. Who 
but the most plucky and patient of men would use such 
torrents for navigation ? 

As we neared the sea, twilight fell ; and it was dark 
when we reached the great railway bridge which spans the 
river near its mouth, and found ourselves once more in the 
busy world. 



A LARGE CRATER 

PROF. JOHN MILNE 

THE crater I wish to describe is called Asosan. It 
is situated in Kiushiu. The width of this crater 
is about fifteen miles, and in the bottom of it are 
living about 20,000 people. 

From Kumamoto, I travelled directly eastward along a 
road which upon the native maps appears to lead from 
one side of the island to the other. Straight before us we 
could see Asosan giving off heavy clouds of steam ; be- 
tween us and this there was a long range of rugged hills 
parallel with the coast which we had just left behind us; 
these looked reddish and bare, but when we came actually 
upon them, I found that their colour was due to a covering 
of brown grass. The road on which we travelled was, for 
a Japanese road, very wide ; on each side of it there were 
two lines of trees, the lines nearest to the road were wax- 
trees, and those behind them were cryptomerias. As the 
wax-trees had lost their leaves, they looked very bare and 
ragged, but in summer time, when they are in full foliage, 
they must form an avenue which I think would far surpass 
anything I ever saw in an English park. Roads bordered 
with lines of tall trees are a feature in Japan, and some of 
those which continue for twenty or thirty miles in almost 

201 



lol JAPAN 

unbroken lines, form sights which when once seen will 
always be remembered. 

After eleven and a half miles up this road, we reached 
the village of Odzu, where we took up quarters for the 
night. Early next morning we started out upon frozen 
roads to climb the hills before us. The ascent was gentle. 
Right and left were broad stretches of uncultivated grassy 
ground. Away upon our left, we could see a high moun- 
tain called Kuratake, which, from its general shape and a 
rugged-looking hollow which had been breached upon the 
side towards which we were looking, seemed to represent 
the remains of an old volcano. Looking back, we could 
see the plain across which we had come on the previous 
afternoon ; at the edge of it, where it reached down to the 
sea, we could just make out the position of Kumamoto ; 
whilst beyond that, at the other side of the bay on which 
Kumamoto is situated, there rises a rugged mass of moun- 
tains, the highest peak of which was the volcano Unsen. 
This volcano is the one which, amongst all Japanese vol- 
canoes, has probably been the most destructive. In 1793, 
during an eruption which extended over many days, a large 
portion of it literally blew up. The earthquakes that ac- 
companied this outburst — the rushing in of the sea, and 
the falling boulders and fiery rain of red-hot cinders — laid 
waste the surrounding country, and took away the lives of 
fifty thousand of its inhabitants. 

After a little more climbing, we reached the top of the 
ridge called Futaiyaino-toge ; and here, before us, was a 



A LARGE CRATER 203 

sight as striking as it was unexpected, because the ascent 
from the sea up to this point had been so gentle, being in- 
deed only about 1,750 feet. We had naturally expected 
that on reaching the summit we should have before us a 
descent equally easy, but instead of that, we found our- 
selves standing on the edge of what was nothing more or 
less than a deep pit, which was nearly circular. The 
greater portion of the sides of this pit were perpendicular 
cliffs of rocks, which here and there, near their upper 
parts, showed the irregular, broken stratification, so char- 
acteristic of the sides of many craters. In places at the 
foot of these cliffs, a sloping talus had been formed ; 
whilst in other places the cliff-like forms had been so far 
denuded that the sides of the pit formed irregular, but ex- 
ceedingly steep, slopes. Looking at this pit from the 
commanding position in which we stood, I estimated its 
width at seven miles; and it was not until we descended, 
and tried to walk across, and found how little was the prog- 
ress which we made, that we recognized how far we had 
underrated its true dimensions. In the middle of the pit, 
and running far up above its sides, there is a large, irregu- 
lar block of mountains, the central peak of which is always 
giving off large clouds of steam. This peak was Mount 
Aso, the goal of our journey. From the rim upon which 
we stood, by a zig-zag pathway, we quickly made the 
descent to the crater plain below us. The depth at this 
point was about 600 feet. 

At the foot of these mountains, the priests have their 



204 JAPAN 

permanent rendez-vous / and, on the summit, small temples 
and shrines, where during fixed seasons they reside, and re- 
ceive the crowds of pilgrims to the deities of the mountain. 
The number of pilgrims who ascend the famous Fujiyama 
every year must be many thousands, and the fees the priests 
receive thereby, from the toll-gates on the upward paths 
that they have established, are very numerous, and must 
form a considerable revenue. If you visit some of these 
mountains at any other time than the appointed season, you 
may be refused permission to ascend. I myself was refused 
in this way at Iwakisan, one of the most beautiful volcanoes 
in northern Nippon. On another mountain, Chokaisan, I 
was subjected to a most curious treatment. I commenced 
ascending this mountain, and after scrambling over blocks of 
lava, and up long fields of snow, I reached the top, faint 
and weary at 1:30 p. m. My first impulse was to eat and 
drink, but in this I was prevented by four priests, who in- 
sisted that before satisfying either my hunger or my thirst I 
ought to pay my devotions at a small shrine which they 
had built. Being too tired and feeble to resist, I allowed 
them to lead me into the shrine where I dropped on my 
knees before the idol between the two priests, who, after 
putting on their robes of office, commenced to invoke the 
deity, and beat small drums. After this, they opened a 
small door in front of me, and showed me my reflection in 
a metal looking-glass, where I suppose I was expected to 
see the lines which sin had graven on my face. Next, one 
of them handed me a large, clean, metal bowl. Instinct 



A LARGE CRATER 205 

told me that an opportunity was coming to satisfy my 
thirst J so I took it reverentially in my two hands, and the 
priest immediately filled the bowl up with Japanese wine 
{sake\ which I learnt afterwards had been dedicated to the 
gods. Never did nectar taste so good. After the first half- 
pint, the priest invited me to more wine, and, feeling faint, 
the offer was readily accepted. Again the offer came, but 
this was too much ; modesty overcame me, and putting 
down twenty cents as an offering to the gods, I withdrew 
to my sandwiches. This was a Japanese sacrament, and I 
must say that I found it very good. 

From the foot of the crater to Bojo, I calculated the dis- 
tance to be about five miles ; and, as this point was about 
half-way across this portion of the pit, the total width would 
here be about ten miles. From a map of the crater, which 
our host, who kept a small shop in Bojo, made for me, the 
diameter in some directions must be fourteen or fifteen 
miles. This I confirmed by sketching in the position of the 
crater upon a map prepared by the government. Looking 
on the map, inside the space I marked out as being the 
boundaries of the crater, I counted about eighty villages. 
Fifty of the villages, our host said, were a moderate size. 
If these contained, say, on an average 300 people, then 
living in the crater there must be from fifteen to twenty 
thousand people. 

The following account was given to me of the last 
eruption of Asosan : — "During the winter of 1873, 
sounds were heard and white and black smoke was ob- 



2o6 JAPAN 

served proceeding from the top of Asosan. On the 27th 
February in the following year, whilst the wind was blow- 
ing from the south, the ground began to quake and ashes 
were thrown out. What the thickness of the beds of 
ashes in the rice-fields was we cannot tell, but near to us 
they attained a thickness of one inch. The ashes 
covered everything, and the leaves of the pine-trees and 
the wheat were turned quite red. At six o'clock in the 
morning of the 13th the ground again began to shake, and 
noises were heard on an average one hundred times an 
hour. On the 14th, at six o'clock, there were two or 
three very heavy shakes and on the 23d these became still 
more violent. These shakings were so strong that neither 
old nor young could sleep. They continued on the 24th, 
but on this day the eruption ceased. The material which 
was thrown out was of a grey colour, but afterwards it be- 
came red. The greatest quantity of ashes fell at Kuro- 
gawagumi and Higashi-kurogawa. At the commencement 
of the eruption, which was on the ist of December, 1873, 
the volcano threw out stones one and two feet in diameter; 
and four men who were working at some sulphur deposits 
on the top of the mountain were immediately killed. 
Many hot springs burst out, and so much sulphurous 
matter was thrown into the River Shirokawo, which flows 
from this crater to Kumamoto that all the fish were 
poisoned. Even up till the 3d of March, 1874, shocks 
were felt, and material was thrown out which covered the 
ground for a distance of eighteen miles. During the day, 



A LARGE CRATER 207 

it was at times as dark as night. Previously, in 1806, 
there had been another serious eruption. The fame of 
this mountain spread even to China, and in a Chinese book 
I found the follow^ing : — Smoke rises up to the sky from 
Mount Aso in Nippon. People say that in this mountain 
there is a precious stone of a blue colour and shaped like 
an egg, w^hich shines at night. They v^orship this and call 
it Antikokusan. The shining smoke on the top of this 
mountain has three colours v^hich can be seen from a 
distance of three miles; these three colours are blue, 
yellow and red." 

On the morning after reaching Bojo, we started ofF to 
ascend the central peak of Asosan. After a climb of about 
200 feet, we turned round to look at the crater we were 
leaving. At our feet was a cultivated plain dotted over 
with clumps of trees and villages, beyond which there was 
a line of fir-trees and cryptomeria. These formed a belt 
round the foot of the amphitheatre of perpendicular cliffs 
which intercepted any further view. Before us, but on 
the left, there was a rugged peak called Nekodake, a 
portion of which looked very like a ruined crater. To the 
right and to the left of us was a wide expanse of slop- 
ing ground covered with brown grass. When we were 
400 feet above Bojo, we came to patches of snow. As 
we neared the top, we crossed one or two old lava streams 
and beds of ashes. At a height of about 2,000 feet above 
our starting point, or about 3,600 feet above the sea, we 
were on a level with the upper crater of Asosan, a huge 



2o8 JAPAN 

black pit which was giving off vast clouds of steam. All 
the rocks which I saw up to this point were andesites, 
similar to those which form the ring-wall of the outer 
crater. Here we found one or two men w^ho were 
engaged in collecting sulphur. Upon our right, there was 
a rounded hill called Dobindake, which rose almost 500 
feet above the level of the crater. The extreme height, 
therefore, of Asosan above the sea-level is perhaps a little 
over 5,000 feet. From this position, we had a good view 
of the big crater which surrounded us, as the slope on its 
outside is generally so gentle that it looked like a huge 
pit with perpendicular sides which had been dug out of the 
top part of a piece of ground in shape like an inverted 
saucer. On the northern side, the cliffs which bound this 
pit are almost everywhere perpendicular ; but on the south 
side, which was the side towards which we descended, they 
were more worn away to form rugged hills. The cliff-like 
character, with its horizontally-stratified structure, could, 
however, be in many places distinctly traced. 

Now how does the crater of Asosan compare with 
other craters in the world ? Amongst those which are 
active, it appears to be the largest which has hitherto been 
discovered, and even if we include those which are extinct, 
it appears to take the foremost place. Amongst the large 
craters mentioned by Scrope, it would seem that Asosan, 
considering its size and activity, is without a rival. If we 
go further, leave the earth and compare Asosan with craters 
on the Moon, although it cannot stand before a pit like 



A LARGE CRATER 209 

that exhibited by Copernicus, which is said to have a 
diameter of fifty-six miles, it nevertheless may be regarded 
as an example of healthy competition. 

As an active volcano, however, it still holds its place ; 
and if Africa boasts of the largest waterfall, and India of 
the highest mountains, in one of the prominent classes of 
natural phenomena Japan also will be able to take an 
equally prominent position. Not only may the Japanese 
boast of possessing one of the most beautiful of volcanoes, 
which mountain is the far-famed Fuji, but they may boast 
of one of the most remarkable of craters. 



ENOSHIMA 

LAFCADIO HEARN 

THE road slopes before us as we go, sinks down 
between clifFs steep as the walls of a canon, and 
curves. Suddenly we emerge from the clifFs, and 
reach the sea. It is blue like the unclouded sky, — a soft 
dreamy blue. 

And our path turns sharply to the right, and winds along 
clifF-summits overlooking a broad beach of dun-coloured 
sand ; and the sea-wind blows deliciously with a sweet 
saline scent, urging the lungs to fill themselves to the very 
utmost; and far away before me, I perceive a beautiful 
high green mass, an island foliage-covered, rising out of 
the water about a quarter of a mile from the main-land, — 
Enoshima, the holy island, sacred to the goddess of the sea, 
the goddess of beauty. I can already distinguish a tiny 
town, grey-sprinkling its steep slope. Evidently it can be 
reached to-day on foot, for the tide is out, and has left bare 
a long broad reach of sand, extending to it, from the op- 
posite village which we are approaching, like a causeway. 

At Katase, the little settlement facing the island, we 
must leave our jinriki-sha and walk ; the dunes between 
the villages and the beach are too deep to pull the vehicle 
over. Scores of other jinriki-sha are waiting here in the 



ENOSHIMA 211 

little narrow street for pilgrims who have preceded me. 
But to-day, I am told, I am the only European who visits 
the shrine of Benten. 

Our two men lead the way over the dunes, and we soon 
descend upon damp, firm sand. 

As we near the island the architectural details of the lit- 
tle town define delightfully through the faint sea-haze, — 
curved bluish sweeps of fantastic roofs, angles of airy bal- 
conies, high-peaked curious gables, all above a fluttering of 
queerly shaped banners covered with mysterious lettering. 
We pass the sand-flats ; and the ever-open Portal of the 
Sea-City, the City of the Dragon-goddess, is before us, a 
beautiful Tori-i. All of bronze it is, with shimenawa of 
bronze above it, and a brazen tablet inscribed with char- 
acters declaring : " This is the Palace of the Goddess of Enosh- 
ima.'' About the bases of the ponderous pillars are strange 
designs in relievo^ eddyings of waves with tortoises strug- 
gling in the flow. This is really the gate of the city, fac- 
ing the shrine of Benten by the land approach ; but it is 
only the third Tori-i of the imposing series through Katase : 
we did not see the others, having come by way of the 
coast. 

And lo 1 we are in Enoshima. High before us slopes 
the single street, a street of broad steps, a street shadowy, 
full of multi-coloured flags and dark blue drapery dashed 
with white fantasticalities, which are words, fluttered by 
the sea-wind. It is lined with taverns and miniature shops. 
At every one I must pause to look; and to dare to look at 



212 JAPAN 

anything in Japan is to want to buy it. So I buy, and buy, 
and buy. 

For verily 'tis a City of Mother-of-Pearl, this Enoshima. 
In every shop, behind the lettered draperies there are mira- 
cles of shell-work for sale at absurdly small prices. The 
glazed cases laid flat upon the matted platforms, the shelved 
cabinets set against the walls, are all opalescent with nacre- 
ous things, — extraordinary surprises, incredible ingenuities; 
strings of mother-of-pearl fish, strings of mother-of-pearl 
birds, all shimmering with rainbow colours. There are 
little kittens of mother-of-pearl, and little foxes of mother- 
of-pearl, and little puppies of mother-of-pearl, and girls' 
hair-combs, and cigarette-holders, and pipes too beautiful 
to use. There are little tortoises, not larger than a shilling, 
made of shells, that, when you touch them, however lightly, 
begin to move head, legs, and tail, all at the same time, al- 
ternately withdrawing or protruding their limbs so much 
like real tortoises as to give one a shock of surprise. There 
are storks and birds, and beetles and butterflies, and crabs 
and lobsters, made so cunningly of shells, that only touch 
convinces you they are not alive. There are bees of shell, 
poised on flowers of the same material, — poised on wire in 
such a way that they seem to buzz if moved only with the 
tip of a feather. There is shell-work jewelry indescribable, 
things that Japanese girls love, enchantments in mother-of- 
pearl, hair-pins carven in a hundred forms, brooches, neck- 
laces. And there are photographs of Enoshima. 

This curious street ends at another Tori-i^ a wooden 



ENOSHIMA 213 

Tori-i^ with a steeper flight of stone steps ascending to it. 
At the foot of the steps are votive stone lamps and a httle 
well, and a stone tank at which all pilgrims wash their 
hands and rinse their mouths before approaching the tem- 
ples of the gods. And hanging beside the tank are bright 
blue towels, with large white Chinese characters upon 
them. I ask Akira what these characters signify : — 

Ho-Keng is the sound of the characters in the Chinese; 
but in Japanese the same characters are pronounced Kenji- 
tate — matsuru^ and signify that those towels are most hum- 
bly offered to Benten. They are what you call votive 
offerings. And there are many kinds of votive offerings 
made to famous shrines. Some people give towels, some 
give pictures, some give vases; some offer lanterns of 
paper, or bronze, or stone. It is common to promise such 
offerings when making petitions to the gods ; and it is 
usual to promise a Tori-i. The Tori-i may be small or 
great, according to the wealth of him who gives it; the 
very rich pilgrim may offer to the gods a Tori-i of metal, 
such as that below, which is the Gate of Enoshima. 

Now we are going to visit the Dragon cavern, not so 
called, Akira says, because the Dragon of Benten ever 
dwelt therein, but because the shape of the cavern is the 
shape of a dragon. The path descends towards the oppo- 
site side of the island, and suddenly breaks into a flight of 
steps cut out of the pale hard rock, — exceedingly steep and 
worn, and slippery, and perilous, — overlooking the sea. A 
vision of low pale rocks, and surf bursting among them, 



214 JAPAN 

and a Toro^ or votive stone lamp, in the centre of them, — 
all seen as in a bird's eye view, over the verge of an awful 
precipice. I see also deep round holes in one of the rocks. 
There used to be a tea-house below ; and the wooden pil- 
lars supporting it were fitted into those holes. 

I descend with caution ; the Japanese seldom slip in their 
straw sandals, but I can only proceed with the aid of the 
guide. At almost every step I slip. Surely these steps 
could never have been thus worn away by the straw sandals 
of pilgrims who came to see only stones and serpents ! 

At last we reach a plank gallery carried along the face 
of the cliff above the rocks and pools, and following it 
round a projection of the cliff enter the sacred cave. The 
light dims as we advance ; and the sea-waves, running after 
us into the gloom, make a stupefying roar, multiplied by 
the extraordinary echo. Looking back, I see the mouth 
of the cavern like a prodigious sharply angled rent in black- 
ness, showing a fragment of azure sky. 

We reach a shrine with no deity in it, pay a fee ; and 
lamps being lighted and given to each of us, we proceed to 
explore a series of underground passages. So black they 
are that even with the light of three lamps, I can at first 
see nothing. In a while, however, I can distinguish stone 
figures in relief, — chiseled on slabs like those I saw in the 
Buddhist graveyard. These are placed at regular intervals 
along the rock walls. The guide approaches his light to 
the face of each one, and utters a name, " Daikoku-Sama," 
" Fudo-Sama," " Kwannon-Sama." Sometimes in lieu of 



ENOSHIMA 215 

a statue there is an empty shrine only, with a money-box 
before it ; and these void shrines have the names of Shinto 
gods, " Daijingu," " Hachiman," " Inari-Sama." All the 
statues are black, or seem black in the yellow lamplight, 
and sparkle as if frosted. I feel as if I were in some mor- 
tuary pit, some subterranean burial-place of dead gods. 
Interminable the corridor appears j yet there is at last an 
end, — an end with a shrine in it, — where the rocky ceiling 
descends so low that to reach the shrine one must go down 
on hands and knees. And there is nothing in the shrine. 
This is the Tail of the Dragon. 

We do not return to the light at once, but enter into 
other lateral black corridors — the Wings of the Dragon. 
More sable effigies of dispossessed gods ; more empty 
shrines ; more stone faces covered with saltpetre ; and 
more money-boxes possible only to reach by stooping, 
where more offerings should be made. And there is no 
Benten, either of wood or stone. 

I am glad to return to the light. Here our guide strips 
naked, and suddenly leaps head foremost into a black, deep, 
swirling current between rocks. Five minutes later he 
reappears, and clambering out lays at my feet a living, 
squirming sea-snail and an enormous shrimp. Then he 
resumes his robe, and we reascend the mountain. 

"And this," the reader may say, — "this is all that you 
went forth to see : a Tori-i^ some shells, a small damask 
snake, some stones ? " 

It is true. And nevertheless I know that I am be- 



2i6 JAPAN 

witched. There is a charm indefinable about the place, — 
a sort of charm which comes with a little ghostly thrill 
never to be forgotten. 

Not of strange sights alone is this charm made, but of 
numberless subtle sensations and ideas interwoven and in- 
terblended : the sweet, sharp scents of grove and sea ; the 
blood-brightening, vivifying touch of the free wind ; the 
dumb appeal of ancient, mystic, mossy things ; vague rev- 
erence evoked by knowledge of treading soil called holy 
for a thousand years ; and a sense of sympathy, as a human 
duty, compelled by the vision of steps of rock worn down 
into shapelessness by the pilgrim feet of vanished genera- 
tions. 

And other memories ineffaceable : the first sight of the 
sea-girt City of Pearl through a fairy veil of haze ; the 
windy approach to the lovely island over the velvety sound- 
less brown stretch of sand j the weird majesty of the giant 
gate of bronze ; the queer, high-sloping, fantastic, quaintly- 
gabled street, flinging down sharp shadows of aerial bal- 
conies ; the flutter of coloured draperies in the sea-wind, 
and of flags with their riddles of lettering ; the pearly glim- 
mering of the astonishing shapes. 

And impressions of the enormous day, — the day of the 
Land of the Gods, — a loftier day than ever our summers 
know ; and the glory of the view from those green, sacred, 
silent heights between sea and sun ; and the remembrance 
of the sky, a sky spiritual as holiness, a sky with clouds 
ghost-pure and white as the light itself, — seeming, indeed, 



ENOSHIMA 217 

not clouds but dreams, or souls of Bodhisattvas about to 
melt forever into some blue Nirvana. 

And the romance of Benten, too, — the Deity of Beauty, 
the Divinity of Love, the Goddess of Eloquence. Rightly 
is she named Goddess of the Sea. For is not the Sea most 
ancient and most excellent of Speakers, — the eternal Poet, 
chanter of that mystic hymn whose rhythm shakes the 
world, whose mighty syllables no man may learn ? 



COSTUME OF THE GENTLEMEN OF 

JAPAN 

ARTHUR DIOSr 

^ 1 ^HE dress of the Japanese civilian Shi-zoku^ as 
I worn out of doors in all occupations which do 
-■^ not render the adoption of European garments 
necessary or advisable, is simple in cut, sombre in colour, 
neat to a degree, and in excellent taste. The wide-sleeved 
silken gown, or kimono^ of some quiet, dark colour, in very 
narrow vertical stripes divided by black lines, showing at 
the breast where the left side is crossed over the right, the 
edge of an undergarment of precisely similar cut, perhaps 
the edges of two such under-gowns, the one worn next to 
the body, the ju-ban (colloquially, ji-bari)., usually of plain 
silk, these edges of under-robes showing in a manner that 
recalls the superimposed waistcoats of a past generation in 
Europe. Over the kimono^ the wide hakama^ commonly 
translated by "trousers," but really a divided skirt, of 
sober-coloured silk — probably of some bluish-grey tint 
with narrow vertical black stripes, strikingly similar to the 
" striped Angola trouserings " of the fashionable London 
tailors. The obi^ or girdle, of thick silk, four yards long 

1 Formerly called Samurai ; the Gentry, who formed the governing and 
military class in Old Japan. 

2l8 



THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 219 

and two and three-quarter inches wide, is smoothly and 
evenly wound about the waist. Over all, the haori^ or 
overcoat, of stifF, black corded silk, tied across the breast 
by two silken cords, slung in a graceful loop, the back of 
the coat, just below the collar, and the sleeves bearing the 
wearer's crest, his mon^ beautifully embroidered in white 
silk, within a circle of about the size of a shilling. 

These garments compose a costume which proclaims in 
its tasteful simplicity that it is the dress of a gentleman of 
refinement. And, indeed the impression is confirmed by 
closer examination ; it is borne out by every outward sign, 
from the crown of the hatless head to the small, well- 
shaped feet, still free from the painful deformities caused by 
the irrational foot-gear of Western civilization, and encased 
in the most comfortable, hygienic covering imaginable, the 
soft, strong-soled socks, generally white, called tabi^ which 
have a separate compartment for the big toe. This allows 
the big toe and the one next to it to have a firm grasp of 
the thick, padded loop, often covered with ribbed velvet, 
blue or grey, that is the only attachment to the foot of the 
straw sandal, the Z(7r/, worn in dry weather and for walking 
on smooth ground, or of the geta^ the wooden clog com- 
monly used to keep the soles of the feet dry in the very 
damp climate on roads which are often rivers of slush. 

^ The kaori, as now worn reaches to below the knee. Its silk lining, 
often costly, is of a well-chosen colour, such as russet-brown or " old 
gold," with a beautiful woven pattern. During the war against China, 
and immediately after it, linings decorated with representations of vic- 
tories and incidents of conspicuous gallantry were very popular in Tokio. 



220 JAPAN 

These pattens add a few inches to the small stature of the 
Japanese gentleman, just as the loose-cut and wide sleeves, 
used as pockets, of his robes and coat add breadth to his 
rather narrow shoulders. 

The normal Japanese position, equivalent to our sitting, 
is a squatting on the heels, practised from babyhood, which 
has the one advantage that it keeps the feet warm in cold 
weather, but which forces the body into an unhealthy atti- 
tude, and has resulted, in the course of centuries, in pro- 
ducing the disproportionate figure of the modern Japanese 
of the upper classes, the trunk too long in comparison with 
the legs, the shoulders too narrow and the chest too flat. 
Amongst the working-classes, whose labour entails much 
standing and walking, the body is much more symmetrical, 
and the muscular development, particularly in the loins and 
the lower limbs, is often remarkable, especially in the case 
of " coolies," jinriki-sha drawers and fishermen. 

The Japanese gentleman has been described as hatless. 
Would that this were always true, or that, at all events, 
when he feels the necessity of a covering for his head, he 
would wear one of the various shapes of shady, light, and 
cool hats, of straw, or of split and plaited bamboo, used in 
summer by the labouring classes and wayfarers, the kind 
most in favour amongst them being an inverted bowl, or 
basin, with a light inner rim fitting round the head, on 
the principle of the " sun-helmets " used by Europeans in 
the tropics, a perfectly rational, hygienic hat ! Unfortu- 
nately, his natural good taste seems to fail him at times, 



THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 221 

and he sees no incongruity in wearing, with his graceful, 
dignified, silken costume, any sort of Western head-gear, 
from the jaunty " Homburg hat," of grey or brown felt, 
with a " complimentary mourning " band, or of straw, with 
its cleft crown, or the hard, low-crowned " bowler," to the 
straw hat of the Occidental boating-man, and even — sad to 
relate ! — to that abomination of modern Britain — the shape- 
less cloth " stable-cap," with its peak of the same material, 
or sometimes, more hideous still, the double-peaked, ear- 
flapped, " fore-and-aft " cap of sad-coloured cloth. 

If he be not always hatless, he is certainly without 
gloves, so that we have an opportunity of admiring his 
small, delicately-formed hands, with their slender, supple 
fingers — whose pliancy is cultivated in childhood and 
youth, by the school-boy habit of twisting soft paper into 
tough string whilst poring over the lesson-book — fingers 
that can deftly handle the writing-brush or the eating- 
sticks, and that are kept soft and clean, with carefully- 
trimmed nails. Small and well-shaped hands and feet are 
characteristic of the Turanian races, but nowhere are they 
more noticeable than in Japan, where the roughest labour 
does not seem to obliterate the good shape of the 
extremities. 

The Japanese gentleman's clean, gloveless hand holds a 
small and simple fan, of paper and bamboo ; not one of 
those garish articles the bad taste of Western purchasers 
compels Japanese craftsmen to produce for export by hun- 
dreds of thousands annually. No Japanese would cool 



222 JAPAN 

himself, or shield his head from the sun's rays (a frequent 
use of the fan), with one of the fans — too large, too bright, 
the design badly printed from a worn-out block — that 
Occidental ladies use without hesitation, and even exhibit, 
as artistic decorations on the walls of their rooms. The 
Shi-zoku^s ogi^ or folding-fan (not to be confounded with the 
uchi'Wa^ the stiff non-folding-fan, or hand-screen), is beau- 
tifully made of stout mulberry-tree paper, with a fine, 
glossy, parchment-like surface, and of carefully-selected 
split bamboo ; it is light and very durable, and it closes with 
a sharp click testifying to the accuracy with which its faces 
are pasted on to the frame. Its decoration is severely sim- 
ple ; usually a mere suggestion of clouds, in pale gold and 
silver powdering on the colourless surface, or a delicate lit- 
tle sketch in sepia — a scene from classic literature, or an 
impression of romantic landscape, frequently with the ad- 
dition of a short poem, a shi^ or ode in the Chinese style, 
or an uta^ purely Japanese, written with consummate art by 
the brush of some renowned master of caligraphy. When 
the fan is not carried in the hand, it is stuck into the girdle, 
or into the bosom of the gown. 

According to the season, the Japanese gentleman carries 
a paper parasol, an umbrella, or a walking-stick. The par- 
asol is of purely Japanese design, now too well known to 
need description ; the umbrella is, sad to tell, more frequently 
a local imitation of the most ungainly form of the cheap 
Occidental article than one of the light and graceful um- 
brellas of oiled paper and split bamboo still used by the masses. 



THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 223 

I have described thus in detail the dress of the gentleman 
of New Japan, and its accessories, not only because of the 
opportunities of throwing side-lights on some manners and 
customs affected by the introduction of Western ideas — 
and on some of the new industries created, and the old ones 
affected, by the new conditions — but with the object of dis- 
pelling the prevalent misconception that the national 
costume is in danger of early extinction. There was a 
period in which it seemed doomed to give way before 
the dress of the West, as represented by hideous imported 
"slop-clothes " and native imitations thereof. From 1873 
to 1887, especially in the last three years of that period, 
the adoption of European dress progressed rapidly amongst 
the upper classes. It had been made compulsory for officials 
when on duty in 1873, ^"^ ^^^ steadily gained ground 
amongst students, bankers, merchants, and others coming, 
more or less directly, under foreign influence. 

The wave of German influence that swept over Japan from 
1885 to 1887 carried the innovation to a still more danger- 
ous point. The beautiful costume of the women of Japan, 
so absolutely becoming to its wearers that one can hardly 
imagine them clad in any other way, was threatened, and 
sad to relate, the ladies of the Court began to order dresses 
from — Paris ? No — the pen almost refuses to chronicle the 
appalling fact — -from Berlin ! In the nick of time, the re- 
action against a Slavish imitation of Occidental customs 
unsuited to the country came to the rescue. In 1887, the 
national spirit, roused to indignation against the Western 



224 JAPAN 

Powers by the failure of Count Inouye's attempts to induce 
them to negotiate a Revision of the Treaties on the basis 
ardently desired by the Japanese, caused a sudden return to 
many of the old habits and customs that had fallen into 
abeyance. This reaction in minor matters, whilst not im- 
peding the nation's progress in the adaptation of the essen- 
tials of modern civilization, has since made itself increas- 
ingly conspicuous. 

Its outward and visible sign is the resumption of their 
picturesque and becoming national dress by both men and 
women of the upper class. The uniforms, naval, military 
and civil, are all of European patterns ; so is the court 
dress of the nobility — more is the pity, for no statelier cos- 
tume could be devised than that worn by the nobles of 
Old Japan — and, at most of the court functions, the 
Empress, one of those gracious \\xx\t grandes dames who look 
charming and dignified in any costume, appears in European 
dress, together with her ladies, some of whom now accus- 
tomed to wear it, wear it with truly Parisian grace. Offi- 
cials are clad in European costume during office-hours, but 
it may safely be said that, with the above exceptions, the 
Japanese of the upper class now wear their national dress at 
all times when the nature of their work, or recreation, does 
not render Western clothing much more suitable. 

The dress I have attempted to describe is subject to some 
modifications, according to the seasons. In winter, a short 
under jacket, or dogi^ of silk or cotton is worn ; and, in 
very cold weather, two wadded gowns, the nether one called 



THE COSTUME OF GENTLEMEN 225 

shita-gi^ the upper one uwa-gi^ keep the body warm. In 
summer, the kimono is of thin material and of lighter colour, 
the ji-ban^ or shirt, shows a white edge at the opening of 
the gown, and, indoors, or within the precincts of his own 
garden, the Shi-zoku throws off the summer haori,^ or 
overcoat, which is not necessarily black, like the one worn 
in winter, the silken hakama^ and even the summer kimono 
of r<?, or gauze silk, and slips on 2i yukata^ a cotton bath- 
gown, generally white with some minute blue pattern — the 
perfection of a garment for lounging in hot weather. The 
loin-cloth {shita-ohi) of bleached muslin is always worn 
next to the skin. Its plebeian counterpart, the fundoshi^ is 
the foundation of the costume of every male Japanese who 
earns his rice or only his millet, by the sweat of his brow. 
When working away from houses, and secure from obser- 
vation by the lynx-eyed policemen, he reduces his dress to 
its simplest form — the loin-cloth — wondering greatly why 
the powers that be, should, at the instigation of the foreign- 
ers, object to his thus baring his brawny limbs, his 
muscular back and chest, just as untold generations of his 
ancestors did unmolested. 

The Shi-%oku has wisely reverted to his national dress, 
but in one point of his appearance he belongs irrevocably 
to New Japan. He wears his abundant hair cut in the 
Occidental fashion, not always, sooth to say, in the most 
approved Bond Street or Piccadilly style — too frequently, 
an inverted pudding-basin would appear to have guided the 
scissors in their course — but, uneven or sleek, his hair, with 



226 JAPAN 

its parting in the European fashion, is a sign of the Great 
Change. One of the first acts of those who shaped the 
policy of New Japan was to order all officials to abandon 
the national mode of wearing the hair, the time-honoured 
custom of shaving the centre of the front and top of the 
head, leaving the backhair long, to be gathered into a little 
cue, the mage^ which was bound with a string, wound round 
and round its base, and then bent forward, lying well over 
the shaven poll, the ends neatly cut and trimmed. A glance 
at any Japanese picture representing a scene of any period 
between the heroic times and 1870, containing bare-headed 
male figures, will show the mage^ and will demonstrate its 
appropriateness to the Japanese countenance, to which it 
imparts a look of great intelligence, due to the high, shaven 
forehead, and of peculiar dignity. But the mage was a 
troublesome fashion, involving the frequent ministrations 
of the barber, and the loss of much time that was required, 
under the new dispensation, for the study of many difficult 
subjects, such as chemistry, and political economy, and 
Parliamentary government. So the mage had to be cut off, 
the smooth space on the head was suffered to grow a crop 
of stubble, and the fraternity of barbers groaned inwardly, 
and learnt to cut the hair after the fashion of the West. 



JAPANESE LADIES 

T. E. M, 

THE fair sex in Japan are the most simple, and, at 
the same time, the most complicated creatures im- 
aginable. In their general ideas and knowledge 
of the world they are like children — delightful children too 
— and in their love of enjoyment and simple pleasures they 
retain their youthful simplicity all their lives. But, on the 
other hand, it is almost impossible for a foreigner really to 
understand their natures. Up to a certain point a Japanese 
lady is apparently friendly, as she greets one on meeting 
with that easy grace and courtesy which is one of her pe- 
culiar charms. But one seldom becomes more intimate. 
There seems to be a wall of reserve beyond which it is im- 
possible to penetrate. I have vainly attempted to fathom 
the cause of this barrier, but without success ; and I find 
it is the general experience of those who, like myself, have 
lived amongst the Japanese, and know them well. 

Perhaps the natural antipathy which has so long existed 
between the Eastern and Western races may somewhat 
account for this want of intimacy, and I also fear we Eu- 
ropeans have often wounded the delicate susceptibilities of 
our Eastern cousins by our want of tact, and our tendency 

227 



228 JAPAN 

to treat their manners and customs with ridicule, if not 
contempt. 

I am speaking more particularly of the ladies of the upper 
classes. The little " musmee," generally considered by the 
ordinary globe-trotter to be the recognized type of a Jap- 
anese woman, is no more so than is the " grisette " the 
typical French woman, or the English ballet girl the typical 
Englishwoman. 

Nowhere, perhaps, in the world does one find a more 
ideal " lady '' than amongst the wives and daughters of 
" fair Japonica." A Japanese lady reminds me of a deli- 
cate sea-anemone which at the first approach of a rough 
hand shrinks into itself, avoiding contact with the practical 
hardness of every-day life. She is almost morbidly sensi- 
tive, but her natural pride and politeness forbid her in any 
way to retaliate. How little we understand her feelings ! 
A Japanese never forgets. Sometimes revenge is impos- 
sible, but I have heard of more than one case when a for- 
eigner's official position had been lost owing to his wife's 
indiscretion, though he, and his wife also, may be entirely 
ignorant of the cause of the dismissal. 

In appearance a Japanese woman is smaller and of 
slighter build than a European. Many are distinctly pretty 
when young, but they age very quickly, and with their 
youth every vestige of good looks departs. Their com- 
plexions are very sallow, but their faces are generally 
thickly painted and powdered, a hard line round the neck 
showing the point where art stops and nature begins, 



JAPANESE LADIES 229 

Beauty, from a Japanese standpoint, consists in a long, 
oval face, regular features, almond-shaped eyes, sloping 
slightly upwards, a high narrow forehead, and abundance 
of smooth, black hair. Their movements are graceful, al- 
though the style of their dress prevents them walking with 
ease ; their feet and hands are delicately formed, and their 
manners are unquestionably charming. 

They take little or no exercise, and one wonders some- 
times how the little ladies employ their time — there seems 
so little to be done in a Japanese house. To begin with, 
there are no regular meals. The shops near at hand sup- 
ply daily numberless little dishes, which seem to be eaten 
at all hours of the day and night — a few pecks at a time — 
with those impossible little chopsticks. Very little is kept 
in the larder except some slices of daikon (fermented tur- 
nip), some rice and sweet biscuits. 

" The honourable live fish " is sold by men who carry 
round large water-tubs from house to house and cut off as 
much as is required from the unfortunate fish, and replace 
the sadly mutilated but struggling remains back in the tub. 

Eggs are plentiful and cheap ; bread is never used, so 
there is no necessity for an oven. 

The great stand-by is tea. A Japanese lady is seldom 
seen in her home without the quaint little tea-tray by her 
side, and the inevitable pipe, containing one whifF of to- 
bacco, which is in constant requisition. 

There is practically no furniture in a Japanese house. 
The beds consist of large quilted rugs, called y}^/5«j, which 



230 JAPAN 

are rolled up every morning and put in the cupboards con- 
cealed behind the shoji^ or panels in the walls. There are 
no carpets, curtains, tables or chairs, only the straw tatami ; 
and a few small flat cushions on the floor. Instead of our 
European fireplace, a brass or wooden hibatchi^ i. e.^ firebox, 
is substituted, containing charcoal. The boxes can be 
moved about a room as desired. Everything is spotlessly 
clean. No muddy shoes are allowed inside a house, and 
one can generally judge of the number of inmates by the 
row of wooden clogs placed in a row outside the front 
door. Yes, it is all ^"ery quaint and strange in Japan, and 
the longer one lives in the country, the more fascinated 
one becomes with the little people whose manners and cus- 
toms differ so greatly from our own. 

A Japanese lady is noted for her courage, her strength 
of mind and self-possession. It is wonderful to think what 
physical trials and dangers these fragile little creatures will 
undergo in an emergency. From her youth a Japanese 
lady is taught to control her feelings, and the strange im- 
mobility that is so noticeable in the Empress is considered, 
from a Japanese point of view, the very highest mark of 
good breeding. 

The social position of Japanese women has very much 
changed for the better during the last few years, chiefly 
owing to foreign influence and the spread of Christianity in 
the country. The Empress, too, has done much by pro- 
moting charitable work of all kinds, and, through her in- 
fluence, the horrible custom of blackening the teeth and 



JAPANESE LADIES 231 

shaving the eyebrows of married women has been abolished. 
Her personal interest in the Red Cross Society was espe- 
cially noticeable during the war, when she and the wives 
of many of the nobles visited, and some even nursed, the 
sick in hospital, and employed their days making lint and 
bandages for use of the wounded. 

A Japanese courtship and wedding are both very curious 
ceremonies, and still somewhat savour of barbarism. 
" When a young man has fixed his affections upon a 
maiden of suitable standing, he declares his love by fasten- 
ing a branch of a certain shrub to the house of the damsel's 
parents. If the branch be neglected, the suit is rejected ; 
if it be accepted, so is the suitor." At the time of the 
marriage the bridegroom sends presents to his bride as 
costly as his means will allow ; which she immediately of- 
fers to her parents, in acknowledgment of their kindness in 
infancy and of the pains bestowed upon her education. 
The wedding takes place in the evening. The bride is 
dressed in a long white silk kimono and white veil, and she 
and her future husband sit facing each other on the floor. 
Two tables are placed close by ; on the one is a kettle with 
two spouts, a bottle of sake^ and cups ; on the other is a 
miniature fir-tree — signifying the strength of the bride- 
groom ; a plum-tree, signifying the beauty of the bride ; 
and lastly a stork standing on a tortoise — representing long 
life and happiness desired by them both. 

At the marriage feast each guest in turn drinks three 
cups of the sake ,• and the two-spouted kettle, also contain- 



232 JAPAN 

ing sake^ is put to the mouths of the bride and bridegroom 
alternately by two attendants, signifying that they are to 
share together joys and sorrows. The bride keeps her veil 
all her life, and at her death it is buried with her as her 
shroud. The chief duty of a Japanese woman all her life 
is obedience : whilst unmarried, to her parents ; when mar- 
ried, to her husband and his parents ; when widowed, to 
her son. 

In the Greater Learning of Women^ we read : " A woman 
should look upon her husband as if he were Heaven itself, 
and thus escape celestial punishment. The five worst 
maladies that afflict the female mind are : — indocility, dis- 
content, slander, jealousy and silliness. Without any 
doubt these five maladies afflict seven or eight out of every 
ten women, and from them arises the inferiority of women 
to men. A woman should cure them by self-inspection 
and self-reproach. The worst of them, and the parent of 
the other four, is silliness ! " 

The above extract shows us very clearly the position 
which women have, until quite recently, taken in Japan. 
As a German writer says, her condition is the intermediate 
link between the European and the Asiatic. On the one 
hand, Japanese women are subjected to no seclusion, and 
are as carefully educated as the men, and take their place 
in society ; but, on the other hand, they have absolutely 
no independence, and are in complete subjection to their 
husbands, sons, and other relations. They are without 
legal rights, and under no circumstances can a vi^ife obtain 



JAPANESE LADIES 233 

a divorce or separation from her husband, however great 
his ofFence. Notwithstanding this, in no country does one 
find a higher standard of morality than amongst the mar- 
ried women of Japan. Faithlessness is practically un- 
known, although the poor little wives must often have 
much to put up with from their autocratic lords and mas- 
ters. They bear all, however, silently and uncomplain- 
ingly, their characteristic pride and reserve forbidding them 
show to the outer world what they suffer. 



A 



JAPANESE CHILDREN 

MORTIMER MEMPES 

CLUSTER of little Japanese children at play 
somehow suggests to me a grand picture-gallery, 
a picture-gallery of a nation. Every picture is a 
child upon which has been expended the subtle decorative 
sense of its family or neighbours, as expressed in the tint 
of its dress and sash and in the decoration of its little head. 
It is In the children that the national artistic and poetic 
nature of the Japanese people most assuredly finds expres- 
sion. Each little one expresses In Its tiny dress some con- 
ception, some idea or thought, dear to the mother, some 
particular aspect of the national ideals. And just as in 
the West the character of a man can be gauged by the set 
and crease of his trousers, so in Japan are the sentiments 
and Ideals of a mother expressed in the design and colour- 
ing of her baby's little kimono. Thus, when watching a 
group of children, maybe on a fete day, one Instinctively 
compares them with a gallery of pictures, each of which is 
a masterpiece, painted by an artist whose Individuality is 
clearly expressed therein. Each little picture In this gal- 
lery of children is perfect In itself; yet on closer study it 
will be found that the children are more than mere pictures. 
They tell us of the truths of Japan. 

The science of deportment occupies quite half the time 

234 




JAPANESE CHILDREN, BY MORTIMER MEMPES. 



JAPANESE CHILDREN 235 

of the Japanese children's lives, and so early are they trained 
that even the baby of three, strapped to the back of its 
sister aged five, will in that avv^kward position bow to you 
and behave with perfect propriety and grace. This Japa- 
nese baby has already gone through a course of severe 
training in the science of deportment. It has been taught 
how to walk, how to kneel down, and how to get up again 
without disarranging a single fold of its kimono. After this 
it is necessary that it should learn the correct way to wait 
upon people — how to carry a tray, and how to present it 
gracefully ; while the dainty handing of a cup to a guest is 
of the greatest importance imaginable. A gentleman can 
always tell the character of a girl and the class to which 
she belongs by the way she offers him a cup o^ sake. And 
then the children are taught that they must always control 
their feeUngs — if they are sad, never to cry; if they are 
happy, to laugh quietly, never in a boisterous manner, for 
that would be considered vulgar in the extreme. 

Modesty and reserve are insisted upon in the youth of 
Japan. A girl is taught that she must talk very little, but 
listen sympathetically to the conversation of her superiors. 
If she has a brother, she must look up to him as her mas- 
ter, even although he be younger than herself. She must 
give way to him in every detail. The baby boy places his 
tiny foot upon his sister's neck, and she is thenceforth his 
slave. If he is sad, her one care must be to make him 
happy. Her ambition is to imitate as nearly as possible 
the behaviour of her mother towards her own lord and master. 



236 JAPAN 

A little boy flying a kite is like no other boy you have 
ever seen in England. There is a curious formality and 
staidness about him and his companions which never degen- 
erates into shyness. 

Once I drifted into a country village in search of sub- 
jects for pictures, and I found to my astonishment that 
every living soul there was flying a kite, from old men 
down to babies. It was evidently ay?/<?-day, dedicated to 
kites ; all business seemed abandoned, and every one either 
stood or ran about gazing up in the air at the respective 
toys. There were kites of every variety — red kites, yellow 
kites, kites in the shape of fish, teams of fighting kites and 
sometimes whole battalions of them at war with kites of a 
different colour, attempting to chafe each other's strings. 
It rather surprised me at first to see staid old men keenly 
interested in so childish an amusement ; but in a very short 
time I too found myself running about with the rest, grasp- 
ing a string and watching with the greatest joy imaginable 
the career of a floating thing gorgeously painted, softly 
rising higher and higher in the air, until it mingled among 
the canopy of other kites above my head, becoming en- 
tangled for a moment, then leaving them and soaring up 
above the common herd, and side by side with a monstrous 
butterfly kite ; then came the chase, the flight and the 
downfall of one or the other. They were all children 
there, every one of them, from the old men downwards ; 
all care and worry was for the time forgotten in the simple 
joy of flying kites; and I too, in sympathy with the gaiety 



JAPANESE CHILDREN 237 

about me, felt bubbling over with pure joy. To see these 
lovely flow^er-like child faces mingling with the yellow 
wrinkled visages of very old men, all equally happy in a 
game in which age played no part, was an experience never 
to be forgotten. None was too old or too young, and you 
would see mites strapped to the backs of their mothers, 
holding a bit of soiled knotted string in their baby fingers, 
and gazing with their black slit eyes at some tiny bit of a 
crumpled kite floating only a few inches away. 

Another game in which both the youth and the age of 
Japan play equal parts is the game of painting sand-pictures 
on the roadside. These sand-pictures are often executed 
by very clever artists ; but I have seen little children draw- 
ing exquisite pictures in coloured sands. 

Japanese children seem to have an instinctive knowledge 
of drawing and a facility in the handling of a paint-brush 
that is simply extraordinary. They will begin quite as 
babies to practise the art of painting and drawing, and 
more especially the art of painting sand-pictures. You 
will see groups of little children sitting in the playground 
of some ancient temple, each child with three bags of 
coloured sand and one of white, competing with one 
another as to who shall draw the quaintest and most rapid 
picture. The white sand they will first proceed to spread 
over the ground in the form of a square, cleaning the edges 
until it resembles a sheet of white paper. Then with a 
handful of black sand held in the chubby fingers, they will 
draw with the utmost rapidity the outline of some 



238 JAPAN 

grotesque figure of a man or an animal, formed out of 
their own baby imaginations. Then come the coloured 
sands, filled in the spaces with red, yellow, or blue, ac- 
cording to the taste and fancy of the particular child 
artist. But the most extraordinary and most fascinating 
thing of all is to watch the performance of a master in 
sand-pictures. So dexterous and masterly is he that he will 
dip his hand first into a bag of blue sand, and then into 
one of yellow, allowing the separate streams to trickle out 
unmixed; and then with a slight tremble of the hand these 
streams will be quickly converted into one thin stream of 
bright green, relapsing again into the streams of blue and 
yellow at a moment's notice. 

A Japanese mother will take infinite pains to cultivate 
the artistic propensities of her child, and almost the first 
lesson she teaches it is to appreciate the beauties of nature. 
She will never miss the opportunity of teaching the infant 
to enjoy the cherry-blossom on a sunny day in Ueno 
Park. Hundreds of such little parties are to be seen 
under the trees enjoying the blossom, while the mother 
seated in the middle of the group points out the many 
beauties of the scene. She will tell them dainty fairy 
stories — to the boys, brave deeds of valour, to strengthen 
their courage ; to the girls, tales of unselfish and honour- 
able wives and mothers. Every story has a moral 
attached to it, and is intended to educate and improve the 
children in one direction or another. 



\ 



THE GEISHA 

MORTIMER MEMPES 

THE geisha begins her career at a very early age. 
When only two or three years old she is taught to 
sing and dance and talk, and above all to be able 
to listen sympathetically, which is the greatest art of all. 
The career of this tiny mite is carved out thus early be- 
cause her mother foresees that she has the qualities that 
will develop, and the little butterfly child, so gay and so 
brilliant, will become a still more gorgeous butterfly 
woman. Nothing can be too brilliant for the geisha ; she 
is the life and soul of Japan, the merry sparkling side of 
Japanese life ; she must be always gay, always laughing 
and always young ever to the end of her life. But for the 
girl who is to become the ordinary domesticated wife it is 
different. Starting life as a bright, light-hearted child, she 
becomes sadder and sadder in colour and in spirits with 
every passing year. Directly she becomes a wife, her one 
ambition is to become old — in fact it is almost a craze with 
her. She shows it in every possible way — in the way she 
ties her obi^ the fashion in which she dresses her hair; 
everything that suggests the advance of the sere and yellow 
leaf she will eagerly adopt. When her huband gives a 
party, he calls in the geisha ; she herself, poor dear, sits 

239 



240 JAPAN 

up-stairs on a mat and is not allowed to be seen. She is 
called the " honoured interior," and is far too precious and 
refined to figure in public life. 

The geisha in reality is a little genius, perfectly brilliant 
as a talker, and mistress of the art of dancing. But she 
knows that the Westerner does not appreciate or under- 
stand her fine classical dancing and singing, and she is so 
refined and so charming that she will not allow you to feel 
that you are ignorant and more or less vulgar but will 
instantly begin to amuse you in some way that she thinks 
you will enjoy and understand. She will perhaps unfold 
paper and draw rapid character-sketches of birds and fish, 
or dance a sort of spirited dance that she feels will enter- 
tain you. It is very seldom that they will show you their 
fine classical dances ; but if by good fortune you can over- 
persuade them, as I have done, the sight is one that you 
will never forget — the slow, dignified movements, the 
placing of the foot and the hand, the exquisite curves and 
poses of the body, forming a different picture every time, — 
all is a joy and a perfect intellectual treat to the artist and 
to the lover of beautiful things. There is no rushing 
about, no accordion skirt and high kick, nothing that in 
any way resembles the Western dance. 

Sometimes, if she finds that you appreciate the fine work, 
the geisha will give you imitations of the dancing on our stage 
at home, and although it is very funny, the coarseness of 
it strikes you forcibly. One never dines out or is enter- 
tained in Japan without the geisha forming a prominent 



THE GEISHA 241 

part of the entertainment ; in fact, she herself decorates the 
room where you are dining, just as a flower or picture 
would decorate our dining-rooms at home, only better. 
And there is nothing more typical of the decorative sense 
innate in the Japanese than the little garden of geisha girls, 
which almost invariably forms the background of every tea- 
house dinner. The dinner itself, with its pretty doll-tables, 
its curious assortment of dainty viands set in red lacquer 
bowls, its quaint formalities, and the magnificent ceremonial 
costumes of its hosts, is an artistic scheme, elaborately 
thought out and prepared. But when, at the close, the 
troupe of geishas and maikos appears, forming (as it were) 
a pattern of gorgeous tropical flowers, the scene becomes a 
bit of decoration as daring, original and whimsically beau- 
tiful as any to be seen in this land of natural " placing " 
and artistic design and effect. The colours of kimonos^ 
obis^ fans, and head-ornaments blend, contrast and produce 
a carefully-arranged harmony, the whole converging to a 
centre of attraction, a grotesque, fascinating, exotic figure, 
the geisha of geishas — that vermilion-and-gold girl who 
especially seizes me. She is a bewildering symphony in 
vermilion orange and gold. Her kimono is vermilion em- 
broidered in great dragons ; her obi is cloth of gold ; her 
long hanging sleeves are lined with orange. Just one little 
slim slip of apple-green appears above the golden fold of 
the obi and accentuates the harmony ; it is the crape cord 
of the knapsack which bulges the loops at the back and 
gives the Japanese curve of grace. The little apple-green 



242 JAPAN 

cord keeps the obi in place, and is the discord which makes 
the melody. 

My vermilion girl's hair is brilliant black with blue 
lights, and shining where it is stiffened and gummed in 
loops and bands till they seem to reflect the gold lacquer 
and coral-tipped pins that bristle round her head. Yes, she 
is hke some wonderful, fantastical, tropical blossom, that 
vermilion geisha girl, or like some hitherto unknown and 
gorgeous dragon-fly. And she is charming ; so sweetly, 
simply, candidly alluring. Every movement and gesture, 
each rippling laugh, each fan-flutter, each wave of her rice- 
powdered arms from out of their wing-like sleeves, is a 
joyous and naive appeal for admiration and sympathy. 



THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 

MARCUS B. HUISH 

THE Japanese house principally differs from that of 
other nations in its want of substantiality. It is 
fixed to no foundation, for it merely rests upon 
unhewn stones placed at intervals beneath it, and it usually 
consists of a panel-work of wood, either unpainted or 
painted black on the interior face ; sometimes it is of 
plaster, but this is the exception. Its roof is either shin- 
gled, tiled, or thatched with hay {kayo). No chimneys 
break its skyline, for fires are seldom used. Where they 
are, their smoke issues from a hole left at the top of the 
angle of the gable. The worst side of the house is usually 
turned towards the street, the artistic towards the garden. 
The houses, as a rule, evidence the fact that the nation is 
poor, and that the Japanese does not launch out beyond his 
means, or what he can reinstate when it is destroyed, as it 
most probably will be during his lifetime, by fire or earth- 
quake. Two at least of the sides of the house have no 
permanent walls, and the same applies to almost every par- 
tition in the interior. These are merely screens fitting into 
grooves, which admit of easy and frequent removal. 
Those on the exterior, which are called shoji, are generally 
covered with white paper, so as to allow the light to pene- 

243 



244 JAPAN 

trate ; the shadows thrown upon these, when the light is 
inside, find many a place in the pages of the caricaturists. 
The interior screens are of thick paper, and are usually- 
decorated with paintings. The rooms in the house are for 
the most part small and low; one can almost always easily 
touch the ceilings. The size of each is planned out most 
accurately according to the number of mats which it will 
take to cover the floor. These mats are always of the 
same size, namely, about seventy-two inches by thirty-six 
inches. The rooms are also rectangular and without re- 
cesses, save in the guest-room, where there are two, called 
toko-noma and ch'igai-dana. In the toko-noma are hung the 
kakemono^ or pictures, and on its floor, which is raised above 
the rest of the compartment, vases with flowers, an in- 
cense-burner, a figure of the household god, etc., are 
placed. 

The chigai-dana is used as a receptacle for everything 
which we put in a cupboard. As a rule, it is fitted at the 
top with shelves, and below with a cupboard — the former 
for the reception of the kakemono which are not in use, 
makemono or rolls, lacquer boxes, etc., and the latter for 
stowing away the bedding. 

Almost every Japanese house has a veranda, which is al- 
most a necessity where heavy rain is frequent and the sides 
of the house are composed of fragile materials such as the 
shoji. Round this veranda, therefore, wooden screens called 
amado are placed at night and in the rainy season ; these are 
fixed into grooves, and slide along. 




JAPANESE INTERIOR, WITH ARRANGEMENT OF WINTER FLOWERS. 



THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 245 

No expensive paintwork, in feeble imitation of the wood 
it covers, stands ready to chip and scratch and look shabby. 
Everything remains as it left the carpenter's plane, usually 
smoothed but not polished; If the workman thought the 
bark upon the wood was pretty, he would probably leave 
even this, and he would certainly make no attempt to re- 
move any artistic markings caused by the ravages of a worm 
or larvae. 

Besides the guest-room, there was usually a special room 
set apart for the cha-no-yu^ or tea ceremony ; this was not 
always in the building, but often one apart from the house 
in the garden. The cha-no-yu had its origin three hundred 
years ago. A code of rules was formulated for its observ- 
ance, against which there was no appeal ; it inculcated 
morality, good fellowship, politeness, social equality, and 
simplicity. " The members of the association were," as 
Mr. Anderson says, " the critics and connoisseurs, whose 
dicta consecrated or condemned the labours of artist or 
author, and established canons of taste, to which all works, 
to be successful in their generation, must conform." The 
seances constituted symposia in which abstruse questions of 
philosophy, literature, and art were discussed from the 
standpoint of acknowledged authority. 

Persons in Japan who wish to start housekeeping are 
saved one great expense, namely, furnishing. No carpets, 
tables, bedsteads, wardrobes, or cupboards find a place in 
their requirements. Nor does the Japanese require chairs, 
for he is only comfortable when resting on his knees and 



246 JAPAN 

heels on a cushion {zabuton) ; and he must have his hibachi 
or fire vessel, and his tobako-bon^ or tobacco-tray. The 
hibachi is a portable fire-place, which throws out a slight 
heat, and also serves as a source whence to light the pipe. 
It contains small pieces of charcoal. According to the ex- 
haustive work of Professor Morse on Japanese Homes, 
whenever a caller comes, the first act of hospitality, 
whether in winter or summer, is to place the hibachi before 
him. Even in shops it is brought in and placed on a mat 
when the visitor enters. At a winter party one is assigned 
to each guest, and the place where each is to sit is indicated 
by a square cloth cushion. The tobako-bon is also handed 
to a visitor; it contains a small earthen jar for holding 
charcoal. The baskets used for holding the charcoal for 
the hibachi and tobako-bon are often very artistically made. 
The only other articles of furniture will be the kotatsu, 2. 
square wooden frame, which in winter is placed over the 
hibachi or stove, and is covered with a large wadded quilt or 
futon (under this the whole family huddle for warmth), the 
pillow {makura\ and the lantern {andon) which feebly il- 
lumines the apartment. No Japanese would think of sleep- 
ing without having this burning throughout the night. 

All houses were until lately (1889) lit at night by 
lanterns, but now paraffine lamps are driving them out and 
assisting to increase the fires. Owing to the frequent visi- 
tation of fire, to which Japanese towns and villages are 
subject, almost every house of any importance possesses a 
kura, or " godown," a fireproof isolated building, in which 



THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 247 

all the valuables are kept. Fires are so constantly occur- 
ring that it is almost impossible to take up a number 
of a Japanese weekly paper without more than one 
notification that several hundred houses have been de- 
stroyed. 

The consumption of lanterns in Japan is enormous, 
without counting the export trade. Every house has 
dozens for internal use and for going out at night. These 
latter are placed in a rack in the hall ; each bears the 
owner's name in Chinese characters, or his crest, in red or 
black on a white ground. One burns outside most houses 
and shops, and every foot-passenger carries one. No fes- 
tival is complete without thousands of them. 

Smoking is a universal habit with the Japanese. It be- 
gins, interrupts, and ends his day. The pipes used are 
very small in the bowl, and only hold sufficient tobacco for 
three or four whifFs ; these are swallowed and expelled 
through the nostrils. In consequence of their tiny capacity 
they are often taken for opium pipes ; upon them and the 
tobacco-pouch, artists lavish all their skill. 

Many, perhaps the majority of the objects which come 
to Europe are utensils for food ; it may therefore be inter- 
esting to describe a meal in a well-to-do house. Heri* 
Rein says that each person is served separately on a small 
table or tray. For solid food, he uses chopsticks, but his 
soup he drinks from a small lacquered bowl. Upon his 
table will be found a small porcelain bowl of rice, and 
dishes upon which are relishes of fish, etc.j a tea-pot, for 



248 JAPAN 

the contents of which a saucer instead of a cup is used. 
The stimulants will be either tea {cha) or rice beer {sake). 
The tea is native green, and no milk or sugar is used ; it is 
drunk on every possible occasion, and is even served when 
one visits a shop. The tea apparatus {cha-dogu) is always in 
readiness in the living-room, viz., a brazier with live coals 
(hibachi)^ tray {bori) tea-pot {dohin or cha-hiri)^ cups {cha-wan) 
and a tea-caddy {cha-ire). So too a labourer going to work 
carries with him a hento of lacquered wood for his rice, a 
kettle, a tea-caddy, a tea-pot, a cup, and chopstick {hashi). 
The sake contains a certain amount of fusel oil, and is in-^ 
toxicating j it is usually drunk warm from sake cups, which 
may be either of lacquer or porcelain. Rice being the prin- 
cipal condiment, a servant kneels by with a large pailful, and 
replenishes the bowls as they are held out to her; it is eaten 
at almost every meal, the only substitute being groats made 
out of millet, barley, or wheat. Bread is seldom used. 
Other favourite edibles are gigantic radishes {daikori)^ which 
frequently figure in Art, lotus roots, young bamboo shoots, 
cucumbers, of which a single person will often consume 
three or four a day ; so, too, the dark violet fruit of the 
egg-plant, and fungi (the subject of frequent illustration) 
are eaten at almost every meal. With fruits the Japanese 
is sparsely supplied ; his grapes, peaches, pears and walnuts 
will not compare with Western specimens, but the persim- 
mon, with which the ape is always associated, and which is 
always cropping up in fairy stories, a brillant orange- 
coloured fruit, the size of an apple, is common enough ; 



THE HOUSE AND ITS CUSTOMS 249 

the tree grows to a large size, and holds its fruit in the 
autumn even after it has lost its leaves. 

The wife eats separately from her husband in another 
room with the rest of the females, and holds a position lit- 
tle higher than that of an upper servant. 

No notice of a Japanese house would be complete without 
some reference to the incense-burners (^ko-ro)^ which find a 
place there, and also in Buddhist temples. An article which 
finds a place in most houses and in all shops and is constantly 
depicted in Art is the sorohan^ a frame enclosing rows of 
balls moving on wires by which accounts and calculations 
are made. Another article which is constantly being drawn 
is a besom, which must typify industry. In this respect the 
Jap is singularly clean, as every evening there is a simulta- 
neous and universal sweeping up of the fronts of the houses. 
Hokusai is very fond of drawing persons sweeping, 
especially falling leaves. The old couple, Giotomba,^ 
always have a broom and rake. 

Picnicing is one of the favourite and the mildest of the 
out-door amusements. It is indulged in by all classes and 
at all seasons of the year. At stated times the roads lead- 
ing from the large towns are thronged with animated and 
joyous crowds proceeding to some favourite haunt. The 
excuses for picnicing are many and various. For instance : 
upon a certain day in January all the world sallies forth to 
gather seven different kinds of grasses, which upon the re- 
turn home, are made into a salad. 

^An old man and woman, spirits of the pine. 



THE JAPANESE HEARTH 

SIR EDWIN ARNOLD 

I DO not remember that anybody has ever yet, in de- 
scribing Japan, done any sort of sufficient justice to the 
immense and important part borne by the hibachi in the 
domestic life of this people. Tourists, travellers, and corre- 
spondents casually, indeed, mention the article, as something 
special to Japan, but forget to say how the entire existence 
of the Japanese centres in this very peculiar little institu- 
tion. The hibachi is a fire-box, of which the simplest form 
is that of a square, or circular, or oblong receptacle of 
wood lined with sheet-copper. Into this a quantity of 
lime-dust, or sifted ashes, is put, and on the top of that a little 
pile of lighted charcoal, which burns slowly and steadily 
upon the fine ashes, giving out heat, but not a vestige of 
smoke. This is the primitive and plainest form of the 
" fire-box," such as will be seen in use for common pur- 
poses, at railway stations, in Kuruma-sheds, in wayside tea- 
houses and restaurants, and in unpretentious shops. But 
Japanese skill and taste love to lavish themselves on this 
central piece of domestic furniture, and you see hibachis^ 
accordingly, of all forms and materials. Some are made of 
hammered copper, or brass, or iron, with patterns delicately 
and beautifully beaten out of the burnished metal. Some I 

250 



THE JAPANESE HEARTH 251 

have seen in great houses contrived from the root of a vast 
tree, the gnarled and Icnotted timber being laboriously hol- 
lowed out and lined with copper, and the exterior carefully 
polished to bring forth the beauty of the grain. These 
fantastic " fire-boxes " are in much vogue for country vil- 
las and smoking-rooms. The hibachi for daily home service 
must be useful before all things, and the general shape of it 
is, as I have said, that of an oblong box, about two feet in 
length by fourteen inches broad and a foot deep. Two- 
thirds of the length of this structure is occupied by the 
fire-box proper, lined with metal, and laid with carefully 
sifted ashes, upon which glows the little nest of red sumi- 
sticks. Upon the top of that will be placed a four-legged 
frame of iron, which supports the bronze kettle, the tea-pot, 
and, at need, a small gridiron of wire, or a glazed frying- 
pan in which fish are stewed or fried, or else the earthen 
dish whereupon the inmates roast their bean-cakes, or the 
slices of daikon. The remainder of the hibachi is made up 
of clever little drawers, and unsuspected compartments, 
where the lady of the house — whose special possession the 
" fire-box " is — keeps a world of things which profit by 
being dry, her biscuits, her paper for accounts, needles and 
thread, kan%ashis^ combs, tea, chopsticks, and what not. 
Thus this piece of furniture is at one and the same moment 
the household hearth, the larder, the work-box, the writing- 
case, the toilette-stand, the kitchen, and the natural centre 
for the family of conversation, employment, and needle- 
work. But it may combine these with ever so much beauty 



252 JAPAN 

and richness of external decoration, and it is common to 
see the hibachi built of very beautiful striped and variegated 
woods, its drawers and compartments delicately adorned with 
chased handles and placques of silver or bronze metal, 
while neat little mats of plaited grass or embroidered velvet 
are laid upon the highly honoured part where the tea-pot of 
porcelain and the pretty small painted tea-cups usually 
stand. Sometimes a table for writing and working is 
ingeniously blended with the other conveniences, and there 
is one special form of hibachi^ used for imparting heat in 
cold weather, which is closed in with a lattice of light wood- 
work all around. You can cover this over vf'ith futons^ or bed- 
rugs, and warm the hands and feet in the confined glow, or, 
on frosty nights, you can put it boldly and bodily under the 
bed-clothes, and derive from it all the advantage of a per- 
manent warming-pan. Then there is the tobacco-mono^ 
another special form of the hibachi^ but entirely devoted to 
the eternal kiseru^ the small pipe of brass and bamboo in 
which the Japanese perpetually indulge. This is a kind of 
smaller fire-box, with a bed of ashes for the ever-glowing 
charcoal, a couple of drawers for the delicately cut fragrant 
tobacco, and a little compartment where the brass and sil- 
ver tipped pipes repose while not in use. There is a cover, 
with an opening, for the charcoal, and a handle by which 
the tobacco-mono is carried about ; for it accompanies the 
owner everywhere — to bed, to breakfast, to dinner — on all 
occasions; and next to the sliding of the shoji^ the most uni- 
versal sound heard, perhaps, in Japan, is the tapping of the 



THE JAPANESE HEARTH 253 

little kiseru on the edge of the tobacco-box, when, for the 
hundredth time during the day, the little pipe has been filled, 
and lighted, and the one full pufF — " ippuku " — taken, which 
satisfies the refined and delicate desires of the Nippon 
smoker. 

You must realize then, or try to realize, the prodigious 
import and positive universality of the domestic " fire-box " 
in Japan. There must exist at least as many as the inhabit- 
ants of the country — that is to say, about 40,000,000. 
Every shop has one in front of its shelves and bales, and 
every tea-house or hotel keeps them by the score, because 
the first thing brought to a traveller, or customer, on 
arrival, is the hibachi^ either to warm him, or to furnish a 
chronic light for his pipe, or simply from habit and hospi- 
tality. The tradesmen and those who come to buy at his 
shop gather over the bronze fire-box to discuss prices, and 
at a dinner-party a hibachi is placed between every pair of 
guests. In the interior of an ordinary Japanese home, 
however, one sees the national institution in its simplest 
use. There it stands, always lighted, at least during the 
autumn and winter months, and in its copper receptacle the 
bed of ashes, and the glowing nest of genial fire. It is 
good to see with what dainty care the Japanese dame will 
pick up, stick by stick, and fragment by fragment, the 
precious pieces of charcoal which have fallen from ofF the 
central fire ! With what delicate skill she builds a little 
dome or peak over the tiny crater of the domestic volcano, 
arranging and distributing ! With what silent interest 



254 JAPAN 

everybody watches her purse up her lips, and gently but 
persistently blow upon the sleeping fire till the scarlet life 
of it creeps from the central spark into every grey and 
black bit of the heap, and the hihachi is once more in high 
activity. Then the hands of the household meet over the 
kindly warmth, for this is the only " hearth " of the domi- 
cile, and when the palms and wrists are warm all the body 
will be comfortable. There are little square cushions laid 
all around the fire-box, and upon this we kneel and chat. 
You must drop nothing into that sacred centre in the way 
of cigar-ends, stumps of matches, or cigarette-paper; it is 
the Vestal Fire, not to be violated by disrespectful fuel. 
But you may put the tetsuhin on it, and boil the " honour- 
able hot water," or fry peas over it, or cook little fishes, or 
stew slices of orange and persimmon, and in fact treat it as 
a supplementary kitchen to the larger and permanent hearth 
established in the daidohoro. Every now and then the mis- 
tress of the house, who has the seat of honour before it, 
controlling the supply of sumi and the brass hashi^ with 
which the fire-box is tended, will delicately and economic- 
ally pick out with them from the brass basket at her side, 
a nodule or two more of charcoal, and place these on the 
sinking fire, treating her sumi-hako^ or charcoal-store, as 
elegantly and sparingly as a London lady would the sugar- 
basin. 

Confess that it is a mark of the refined natural life of 
this people, that they have thus for their family hearth- 
stove a pretty piece of cabinet-work lined with copper, and 



THE JAPANESE HEARTH 255 

for their coal-cellar a tiny flower-basket filled with a hand- 
ful of clean picked charcoal ! You might place the entire 
affair on the toilet table of a duchess, and not spoil or soil 
one lappet of her laces, or leave one speck of dust upon her 
mirrors and her dressing-bags. Japan in her social aspects 
is already, in truth, half understood when the universal use 
and the graceful utility of the hihachi have thoroughly be- 
come comprehended. 

One happy consequence of this omnipresent employment 
of charcoal for domestic and culinary purposes is that Japa- 
nese cities, villages, and abodes are perfectly free from 
smoke. The clear air is always unpolluted by those clouds 
of defacing and degrading black smuts which blot out our 
rare sunshine in London, and help to create its horrible 
fogs. There is no doubt a peril of a special kind in the 
fire-box. If not supplied from the kitchen hearth with 
glowing coals already past their first firing, there will be a 
constant efflux of carbonic acid gas into the room, which 
will kill you, subtly and slowly, as certainly as an overdose 
of opium. In European apartments this would prove a 
very serious danger, but the shoji and sliding doors of wood 
let in so many little sources of ventilation — and the rats, 
moreover, take care to gnaw so many holes in the paper of 
the mado — that the fatal gas becomes dispelled or diluted as 
fast as it is created. Nevertheless accidents occur, espe- 
cially in bath-rooms where the fune^ or great tub, is heated 
by a large mass of raw charcoal, and there was a case a 
week ago in Yokohama of a sea-captain found dead in the 



256 JAPAN 

furo-do of his hotel. The Japanese are too wise to sleep 
with a large hibachi in their apartments. They know well 
that the deadly gas, being heavy, sinks to the bottom of the 
room, where their futons are spread upon the mats ; and 
they either put the fire-box outside, or are careful to see 
that it has " honourable mature charcoal " burning low in it. 



E 



GARDENS 

J, J, REIN 

NCLOSED fruit and vegetable gardens, such as are 
1 usually found with us around the dwelling, are un- 
known to the Japanese. He plants his Yasai- 
mono (vegetables) on the Hatake, or Sai-yen, the vegetable 
ground in the open field. He calls the fenced tree-nursery 
Uye-gomi, and the little ornamental garden, commonly be- 
hind the house, Niwa (Sono is the poetical expression) or 
Ko-yen. It is the Niwa which chiefly interests us. 

Siebold says that even in the large cities there is scarcely 
a house which has not its garden, or at least a court adorned 
with one or more evergreen trees. This idea has become 
very prevalent, but it is nevertheless erroneous. Extensive 
journeys through different portions of the three principal 
islands of Old Japan, and the numerous observations in 
cities and countries have convinced me that only a small 
proportion of dwellings have any ornamental or particu- 
larly cultivated piece of ground about them, and that these 
are only to be found in the homes of the cultured and 
wealthy classes. Even the substitute for a garden — the 
court with its few evergreen trees (more properly bushes) — 
although frequently seen, is still only an exception. The 
two shrubs which are found most often in these narrow 

257 



258 JAPAN 

courtyards are the Toshuro {Raphis flabeUiformis\ a kind of 
fan palm about two inches in height, and even more gen- 
erally the Nanten {Nandina domestica\ a bush which seldom 
grows more than one to two inches high. Its trunk, when 
old, is covered with a rugged bark. It bears red berry 
clusters in winter, and is a favourite house-decoration at 
the New Year. 

The enclosures of gardens and parks differ greatly. 
They are whitewashed mud and stone walls, palings 
generally of bamboo cane and quickset hedge. Quickset 
hedges are seen most often around the houses of the 
Samurai. They are generally very carefully cultivated 
and trimmed and shut off a small garden from the street. 
Oftentimes a pretty bamboo paling takes their place, but 
in this case an evergreen thicket grows just behind it, so 
as to hide the modest dwelling as much as possible from 
the passers-by. 

It can hardly be doubted that flower cultivation and the 
art of gardening among the Japanese received their first 
impulse and encouragement from Buddhist priests. P'or 
many centuries the Chinese had cultivated the beautiful 
ornamental plants which were brought from China to 
adorn altars and graves, temple courts and holy pools, 
gardens and parks; also the plants which, like the peony 
and lotus, were at the same time producers of valuable 
medicmes. In the enjoyment of the beautiful appearance 
and prosperity of the foreign plants, interest in the 
indigenous flora increased also, and its finest specimen^ 



GARDENS 259 

were gradually brought into cultivation and carefully 
reared. 

As the feudal system developed in Japan and, under the 
rule of the Tokugawa, the privileged classes enjoyed their 
prerogatives in peace, the parks surrounding the fortresses 
of the Daimios and their Yashikis in Yedo became the 
gathering-place of various ornamental plants vi^hich had 
been introduced gradually from the neighbouring continent, 
and principally of those which had been borrowed from the 
splendid indigenous flora. ^ Every Samurai cultivated as 
large a selection as space would permit in the little garden 
which was his pleasure-ground, but the nationality of the 
little plants after so many digressions was unrecognizable. 

The Japanese ornamental garden is not intended to be 
an abode, but merely to please the eye. It is not a pleas- 
ure-garden or jardin <^' agrement in the German or French 
sense, but it has its own peculiar charm. The cosy 
arbour which is hardly ever wanting in the most modest 
German house garden, in whose shade from childhood we 
pass so many happy hours of recreation and agreeable 
work, is not to be found in the Niwa.^ There is also no 

^ Most of these very interesting large parks with their grand old tree- 
groups and tasteful landscapes of rock and water, avenues and lodges, 
their many sorts of fanciful gardening, pruning, dwarfing and deforming, 
stone turrets and idols, were destroyed after the Restoration. The finest 
specimen of Japanese landscape gardening now to be seen is at Fuki-age, 
the Imperial Garden in Tokio. 

3 The Glycine ( Wistaria chive77sis) is cultivated here and there on 
trellises, but not in order to afford shade, only to exhibit better the hang- 
ing clusters of blossoms. 



26o JAPAN 

fine, carefully kept sward, with flower-beds here and there, 
and broad gravel walks. But there is often a great deal of 
taste and refinement manifested in imitating nature and 
constructing a miniature landscape. If the limited space 
will not permit a little pond in which gold fishes and turtles 
may comfortably play and lotus flowers unfold their lovely 
leaves, and petals in midsummer, there is nevertheless 
room for a modest water-basin, with small red-bellied 
Imori ( Triton subcristatus) in its clear bottom, for a small 
arched bridge over the little stream flowing from it, and a 
pile of rocks. On a somewhat larger plan, this becomes a 
beautiful cool place where clear rippling water flows from 
a little mossy grotto, whose arches are built up in close 
imitation of mountain rocks. These are covered with 
ferns and little bushes of Tsutsuji (^J-zalea mdica\ resem- 
bling our alpine roses, being clothed in early summer with 
red blossoms; and further with the beautiful Daimiojiso 
{Saxifraga cortuscefol'ia) and other tastefully distributed 
favourites of the indigenous flora. A little cemented basin 
or trough is made just in front of this group of rocks, 
where the water is collected, and near by grows the 
Giboshi {Funkia ovatd) its bluish green leaf-tufts covered in 
late summer with spikes of beautiful bluish white flowers. 
The narrow paths which wind through a Japanese garden 
of this kind are paved with one row of stone slabs, in 
which all regularity of form is avoided. There is no at- 
tempt to make the edges even. Potted plants of the popular 
dwarfed varieties take the place of borders on both sides. 



GARDENS 261 

Dwarfing or enlarging one part at the expense of the 
other, variegation and cultivation of every accident or 
trick of nature, are, as has been intimated, the careful oc- 
cupation of the Japanese gardener. He distinguishes him- 
self in these efforts, and even becomes, in one or the 
other, a specialist. He v^^orks with great enjoyment to 
himself, and knows also that he is pleasing the taste of his 
customers, among whom he counts not only the educated 
and the rich, but also the ordinary labourer. 

The Japanese not only take great pleasure in this 
artificial deformation, but they admire and collect also 
natural malformations of every kind. They admire a 
stone, for example, through which water has worn a hole, 
or an old decaying tree-trunk with one or more plants 
growing out of a knothole where seeds have been acciden- 
tally lodged. 

The arrangement and colouring of bouquets is not un- 
derstood by the Japanese. The separation of flowers from 
their stems and gathering them in bunches is not to their 
taste. They admire far more their individual beauty and 
enjoy their natural combinations, — the lovely blossoms 
(Hana) and leaves (Ha) on their stalks (Ko-yeda) or slender 
twigs, the iris and the lotus flower (Kuki). One would 
scarcely suppose that under such circumstances there could 
be such a thing as " the art of arranging flowers " in set 
pieces. Nevertheless Japanese literature possesses under 
this or similar titles a number of works full of illustrations 
in which, however, the many forms of Hana-ike or flower- 



262 JAPAN 

vase play a conspicuous part, and a labouring man, obliged 
to content himself with a cylinder vase of bamboo cane, 
or an earthen vessel, can learn but little to his advantage. 

The enjoyment of beautiful flowers is common to all 
the Japanese people. Even the humble labourer is a cus- 
tomer at the gardens where flowers are kept for sale. In 
view of this, Hana-ichi, or flower-markets, are often held 
on summer evenings, lighted with torches of pitch and 
many-coloured lanterns. They attract the poorer classes 
especially, and afford them an opportunity to gain a flower- 
ing sprig of the most popular plants, which bloom at this 
time. 



A 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 

JOSIAH CONDER 

MONG the many general impressions which exist 
abroad with regard to Japan, is one that it is a 
land abounding in flowers, — that nature has lav- 
ished her floral gifts with special favour upon these sunny- 
islands of the Far East. And in a great measure is this 
popular fancy justifiable, considering the abundant and im- 
posing display produced by flowering trees and shrubs, at 
certain seasons in and around the principal cities. In the 
sense, however, of wild floral profusion, Japanese scenery 
lacks much that other countries can boast. The traveller 
from the West, whose rural wanderings nearer home have 
made him familiar with furze and heather-clad moors, 
green flower-sprinkled meadows, and hills and forests 
girdled or carpeted with flowering plants, will miss in 
Japan some of these charming adornments of natural land- 
scape. There is one short season in the year, when the 
rice is young, and the honey-scented rape blossom spreads 
broad stretches of yellow colour over the plains, that recalls 
to the mind the soft flowering verdure of other lands ; but 
the rice culture, with its endless terraces of mud flats, and 
the coarse bamboo grass, which in place of softer mead 
covers every uncultivated hill and glen, deprive the scenery 

263 



264 JAPAN 

of all but a passing suggestion of the colouring of Western 
meadows and uplands. The comparative scarcity of groups 
of wild flowering plants as a feature in the landscape, is, 
however, to some extent made up for by the blossoming 
trees, which at certain seasons show soft masses of colour 
amid the foliage of the hillsides. The wild camellia, 
azalea, magnolia, plum, peach, and cherry are the most 
important of these flowering trees. In particular the wild 
cherry, which abounds in the Northern island, adds to the 
wooded landscape an appearance of soft clouds of pale, 
pearly tint, likened to mist upon the mountains. Al- 
most every month is known by its special blossoms, and all 
the important cities have groves and gardens devoted to 
their public display. Treasured chiefly as heralds of the 
seasons, and as inseparable from the favourite pursuits and 
pastimes of out-door life, Japanese flowers are by no 
means esteemed in proportion to their scarcity or difliculty 
of production. The isolated merit of rarity, so much 
sought after in the West, has here little or no attraction. 
The florists of the country are not deficient in floricultural 
skill, and produce in certain blossoms forms of considerable 
artificial exuberance, but the popular taste shows a parti- 
ality for the more ordinary and familiar flowers, endeared 
by custom and association. 

Floiver-viewing excursions, together with such pastimes 
as Shell-gatherings Mushroom-pickings and Aloon-viewing^ 
form the favourite occupations of the holiday seeker 
throughout the year. By a pretty fancy, the snow-clad 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 265 

landscape is regarded as Winter's floral display, and Snow- 
viewing is included as one of the flower festivals of the 
year. The Chinese calendar, followed until recently by 
the Japanese, fitted in admirably with the poetical succes- 
sion of flowers. Spring, the Japanese Haru^ opened with 
the New Year, which commenced about February, and was 
heralded by the appearance of the plum blossoms. 

Enriching the bare landscape with its bloom and filling 
the air with its fragrance at a time when the snow of win- 
ter has hardly passed away, the blossoming plum-tree has 
come to be regarded with especial fondness by the Jap- 
anese. Combined with the evergreen pine and bamboo, it 
forms a floral triad, called the Sho-chiku-bai^ supposed to be 
expressive of enduring happiness, and is used as a decora- 
tive symbol on congratulatory occasions. The plum blos- 
som is often referred to as the eldest brother of the hun- 
dred flowers, being the earliest to bloom in the year. 
Quick in seizing the peculiar features which distinguish 
one growth from another, to the extent almost of a tend- 
ency to caricature them, the Japanese have been chiefly at- 
tracted by the rugged and angular character of the plum- 
tree, its stiff, straight shoots, and sparse, studded arrange- 
ment of buds and blossoms. Thus, a fancy has arisen for 
the oldest trees which exhibit these characteristics to per- 
fection. In them is shown the striking contrast of bent 
and crabbed age with fresh and vigorous youth ; and, as if 
to render more complete this ideal, It is held that the plum- 
tree is best seen in bud and not in full blossom. 



266 JAPAN 

The gardeners of the country, so clever In the training 
of miniature trees, find In the plum a favourite object for 
their skill. Imitating in miniature the same character of 
budding youth grafted on to twisted and contorted age. 
These tiny plum-trees, trained in a variety of shapes,— 
bent, curved, and even spiral, — with their vertical or droop- 
ing graftings of different coloured blossom-sprays, fresh, 
fragrant and long lasting, form one of the most welcome 
room decorations during the first months of the year. 

Poets and artists love to compare this flowering tree with 
its later rival, the cherry. With the latter, they say, the 
blossom absorbs all interest, whereas, in the case of the 
plum, attention is drawn more to the tree itself : the cherry 
blossom Is the prettier and gayer of the two, but the plum 
blossom is more chaste and quiet in appearance, and has, 
besides, its sweet odour. 

The season of the plum blossom is made musical with 
the liquid note of the Japanese nightingale, and in the dif- 
ferent decorative arts this bird Is Inseparably associated 
with the plum-tree. Similar combinations of bird and 
flower, or even of beast and flower, are numerous, and 
strictly followed by the many designs of the country ; such, 
for example, are the associations of bamboo leaves and 
sparrows, pea-fowls and peonies, and deer with maple-trees. 

In later times plum-trees were planted In large numbers 
In rural spots near to the ancient capitals, forming pleasure 
resorts for the ladles of the Imperial Court. Along the 
banks of the River KIzu, at a place called Tsuki-ga-se, in 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 267 

the province of Yamato, fine trees of pink and white blos- 
som line the banks for upwards of two miles, diffusing their 
delicious scent around. These trees are what remains of 
quite a forest of plum-trees said to have stretched for miles 
around. The modern capitals have also their favourite 
plum orchards, visited by crowds of sightseers in blossom 
time, at the end of January. Sugita, a village not far from 
Yokohama, possesses one of the most famous, having over 
a thousand trees, many of which are eighty or a hundred 
years of age, and which supply in the summer most of the 
fruit consumed in the Eastern capital, Tokio. It is popu- 
larly known and frequented for its blossoms alone in the 
early spring. This orchard boasts six special kinds of tree, 
distinguished by different fancy names having reference to 
the character of flower ; the principal of which are trees of 
pink, and others of green blossom, — for the white plum 
flower has a faint tinge of emerald. In all, there are said to 
be sixty different species existing in Japan. The blossom 
held most in esteem is the single blossom of white or green- 
ish white colour and of small size. All the white kinds 
are scented, but of the red some have no perfume. There 
is an early plum of red double blossom which blooms before 
the winter solstice, and is of handsome appearance, but it 
has little or no scent. 

Every visitor to Japan has heard of the Gwa-rio-bai^ or 
Recumbent-dragon-plum-trees at Kameido, a famous spot 
in the north of Tokio. At this place there existed, up to 
fifty years ago, a rare and curious plum-tree of great age 



268 JAPAN 

and contorted shape, whose branches had bent, ploughing 
the soil, forming new roots in fourteen places, and strag- 
gling over an extensive area. This tree, from its suggestive 
shape, received the name of the Recumbent Dragon, and, 
yearly clad with fresh shoots and white blossoms of fine 
perfume, attracted large crowds of visitors. From this 
famous tree fruit was yearly presented to the Shogun. 
Succumbing at last to extreme age, it has been replaced by 
a number of less imposing trees, selected on account of 
their more or less bent and crawling shapes. This present 
group of trees, inheriting the name and somewhat of the 
character of Recumbent Dragons, makes a fine show of 
blossoms in February, and keeps up the popularity of the 
resort. 

Komurai and Kinegawa, near Kameido, also have blos- 
som-groves much frequented. 

Another noted spot is Komukai, near Kawasaki, on the 
Tokaido, not far from the capital, historically famous as 
having been often visited by the Shogun, and possessing 
trees over two hundred years of age. 

At Shinjiku, another place on the outskirts of Tokio, is 
a fine grove of plums, popularly called the Silver-world 
{Gin-sekai\ a term often applied to the snow-clad landscape, 
and having special reference in this instance to the silver 
whiteness of these blossoms. 

The third month of spring, corresponding with the pres- 
ent April, Is the month of the cherry blossom, the king of 
flowers in Japan. This flower is remarkable for its soft- 




VIEWING THE PLUM BLOSSOMS. 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 269 

ness and exuberance, as contrasted with the severe simplicity 
of the plum blossom. The latter blooms fresh, vigorous, 
and leafless in the bare and often snov^^-clad landscape ; 
the former, with its florid richness, enhanced in some cases 
by young reddish leaves, is specially fitted to assert itself 
amid the greenery of budding spring. But the splendour 
of the cherry's bloom is transitory in comparison with the 
more lasting qualities of the plum which retains its beauty 
for a full month. The cherry flowers must be viewed 
during the first short days of their prime, and should these 
days be stormy, the full glory of the sight is lost. The 
most enthusiastic partisans of the cherry blossom assert 
that it is all the more precious on account of its transient 
character. 

The wild cherry seems to have existed in Japan from 
time immemorial, and still abounds in the woods of the 
northern island, where the Aino aborigines apply its bark 
to many purposes. Though early records refer often to 
the plum, there is no mention of the cherry earlier than the 
time of Richiu, an Emperor of the Fifth Century. 

This monarch was disporting himself with his courtiers 
in a pleasure boat, on the lake of the Royal park, when 
some petals from the wild cherry-trees of the adjoining 
hills fluttered into the wine cup from which he was drink- 
ing. This circumstance is said to have drawn his Majesty's 
notice to the beauty of this neglected blossom, and from 
this time also arose the custom of wine drinking at the 
time of cherry viewing. To this day there is a popular 



270 JAPAN 

Saying : " Without wine who can properly enjoy the sight 
of the cherry blossom ? " It was reserved for a later Em- 
peror in the Eighth Century to give to the cherry that im- 
portance as a national flower which it has ever since 
retained. Whilst on a hunting expedition on Mount 
Mikasa, in the province of Yamato, the Emperor Shomu, 
attracted by the beauty of the double cherry blossoms, com- 
posed the following short verse, which he sent, with a 
branch of the flowers, to his favourite Consort, Komio 
Kogo : 

« This gathered cherry branch can scarce convey 
A fancy of the blossom-laden tree, 
Blooming in sunlight ; could I shew it thee, 
Thoughts of its beauty would drive sleep away." 

To satisfy the curiosity of the ladies of his Court, the 
Emperor afterwards ordered cherry-trees to be planted near 
the Palace at Nara, and from this time the custom was 
continued at each succeeding capital. 

In the Thirteenth Century the Emperor Kameyama 
caused a number of cherry-trees from Yoshino to be 
planted at Arashiyama, a beautiful hilly spot on the banks 
of the rapid River Oi. Here he built a summer pavilion, 
and, in spring and autumn. Court after Court visited the 
lovely spot, rendered further famous in a verse composed 
by one of the Imperial line : — " Not second to Yoshino, is 
Arashiyama, where the white spray of the torrent sprinkles 
the cherry blossoms." This spot no longer possesses its 
Imperial pavilion, but remains a favourite resort for sight- 



_,;.^< 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 271 

seers from the Western capital, in the months of the cherry 
and maple. Numerous tea-houses and booths, on the 
banks of the rapids, give a fine view of the wooded hills 
opposite, amidst the spring greenery of which may be seen 
the pearly white clouds of the cherry blossoms. Here the 
blossoming trees form a part of the distant landscape, as 
they must have been originally viewed in their natural 
wildness, when they first attracted the admiration of the 
earlier Emperors, and before their more gorgeous successors 
of the double-flower became arranged and isolated in arti- 
ficial orchards and avenues. 

In and near to the present Eastern Capital are several 
spots renowned for their show of cherry-trees in blossom, 
originally brought from Yoshino, and from the banks of 
the Sakura River in the province of Hitachi. One of these 
resorts, at a place called Asukayama, is often spoken of as 
the New Yoshino. 

Koganei, some half day's ride from Tokio, is perhaps the 
most attractive spot for seeing the double cherry in full 
bloom. Here a fine avenue of these flowering trees ex- 
tends upwards of two and a half miles along the aqueduct 
which conveys the water of the River Tama to Tokio. It 
is said that they were first planted immediately after the 
completion of the aqueduct, by command of the Shogun 
Yoshimune, in the beginning of the Eighteenth Century, 
with the idea that cherry-trees had the virtue of keeping off 
impurities from water. For this purpose ten thousand 
trees were brought from Yoshino, and from the banks of 



272 JAPAN 

the River Sakura ; but the number now remaining has 
dwindled to only a few hundred. 

In the old temple grove, now a public park at Uyeno, 
there are a number of fine trees of the single early cherry 
blossoms, called by the Japanese Higan-%akura^ among 
which are some magnificent specimens of the Weeping 
cherry. This latter species has pendant branches, droop- 
ing like the willow, and bears single white flowers, but no 
fruit; thus being an exception to the general rule, that the 
trees of single blossom bear fruit whilst those of double 
blossom are fruitless. The fruit of the Japanese cherry- 
tree is, however, at its best, insipid and worthless. These 
trees at Ueno are all of majestic size, and present a 
gorgeous sight in April, with their pale pink blossoms seen 
partly against the blue sky, and partly against the rich 
foliage of the pines and cedars which surround the golden 
shrines and cenotaphs of the Shoguns. 

The most popular resort in Tokio is the cherry avenue 
at Mukojima, extending for more, than a mile along the 
banks of the River Sumida. Here the trees lack the 
grandeur and natural beauty of those at Uyeno, and have 
no surrounding foliage to set them off; biit they are of 
double blossom, and bending with their weight of flowers, — 
looking almost artificial in their luxurious fulness, — 
present a most imposing sight. The spot is frequented by 
the gayest holiday makers. Wine-drinking is considered 
essential to a proper enjoyment of the scene, and crov/ds 
of pedestrians, bearing their gourds of rice-wine, make 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 273 

such resorts merry and boisterous with their carousals. 
Other visitors, of a richer class, indulge in the prospect of 
the blossom-laden banks from roofed pleasure boats, ac- 
companied often by a gay gathering of singing girls. 

The month of the cherry is one of high winds, and the 
soft petals of the full blown blossoms fall like snow flakes 
covering the pathways beneath. This simple fact is not 
without its attraction to the Japanese, who make much of 
the falling cherry petal in their poetry and other arts. 

The first popular flower of summer, which in public 
places, attracts the pleasure-seeker is the wistaria, bloom- 
ing in May, soon after the cherry blossom has fallen. 
This stalwart flowering creeper is reared upon large 
trellises, arranged to cover long walks, bridges or 
arbours, in pleasure grounds and gardens. A favourite 
position is one sheltering an open gallery, which overhangs 
a lake or stream. In the precincts of the popular temple 
at Kameido, in Tokio, close to the famous plum-trees, 
there are wistarias of magnificent size, bearing blossoms 
which hang in rich purple clusters, from two to three feet 
in length. Wide rustic galleries, in connection with 
garden kiosks^ extend over an artificial lake stocked with 
gigantic gold fish, and the wistaria trellises form an ex- 
tended covering overhead. A belief exists that this flower 
attains great size and beauty if its roots are nourished with 
the rice-wine of the country, and there is, at Kameido, a 
tree producing specially fine blossoms, at the base of which 
visitors are accustomed to empty their wine cups. Other 



274 JAPAN 

fine specimens exist in various parts of Japan, bearing 
clusters over three feet in length, among which may be 
mentioned one at Noda, in the province of Settsu, called 
the Shitose^ or tree of a thousand years. 

The vi^istaria of purple blossom is most common and 
most esteemed, ranking higher than the white kind. This 
is an exception to the prevailing custom, which places 
white before other colours in blossoms of the same species, 
and especially proscribes purple flowers as associated with 
mourning, and unfit for felicitous occasions. In various 
designs the pheasant is shown in combination with the 
purple wistaria. 

In June, the popular flower is the iris or flag, which is 
cultivated in large marshy flats near to some river or lake. 
In many gardens watered by a stream, a loop or bend in 
the water-course is spread out into a marshy expanse, 
planted with flags, and crossed by fancy plank bridges of 
zigzag shape. There are four distinct species of iris, 
known by different native names, but the kind most seen 
is the Acorus calamus^ or sweet flag, which the Japanese call 
Hana-Shobu. In the case of displays of iris flowers, a 
mass of varied colour is delighted in, the purple, white and 
variegated blossoms being grown together, indiscriminately, 
and with no attempt at pattern or design. The most 
noted place for shows of this flower is Yatsuhashi, in the 
province of Makawa ; but the popular resort nearest 
Tokio is a spot called Horikiri, close to the River Sumida, 
to which place it is the fashion to make excursions, in 




WISTARIA BLOSSOMS AT KAMEIDO. 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 275 

pleasure boats early in June. Here the beds which con- 
tain the flags, in every variety of colour, are surrounded by 
elevated grassy banks, dotted with summer-houses, from 
which visitors can look down upon the rich variegated 
carpet below. Narrow wooden bridges give further 
picturesqueness to the scene, crowded in the season 
with a brilliant throng of visitors, whose pretty costumes 
almost vie in gaiety of colour with the flowers. 

The iris, as a water plant, is associated in art with the 
kingfisher, water-rail, mandarin duck and other water 
birds. 

Summer's hottest months bring the peony and lotus 
flowers which, though hardly sufficiently democratic to rank 
among the most popular, yet play an important part in the 
art of the country. The peony is cultivated in long shel- 
tered beds, forming generally the parterre to some adjoining 
chamber, from which its magnificent blossoms can be 
viewed. In the grounds of the wealthy it is subjected to 
scrupulous care and nursing, in order to produce flowers of 
enormous size and fulness, often so large and heavy as to 
need artificial support. It is regarded as the flower-queen 
of China, and is essentially the favourite of the upper 
classes in Japan. The peony was first, it is said, imported 
into this country in the Eighth Century, and was chiefly 
cultivated in the provinces of Yamato and Yamashiro. 
Even now, the finest specimens in Tokio are brought from 
the neighbourhood of the old capital, Nara. The largest 
blossoms measure as much as nine inches across. The 



i 



276 JAPAN 

peony is sometimes called the flower-of-prosperity, and an- 
other fancy name by which it is known is the Plant of 
Twenty Days, given because it is said to preserve its 
beauty and freshness for that period of time. Of the large 
tree-peony there are ninety distinct kinds, not including the 
small single kind of the same species, of which there are 
said to exist five hundred varieties. Among colours, the 
red and white are most valued, purple and yellow speci- 
mens though rare, being less prized. This exuberant 
flower, with its large curling petals, is a favourite subject 
for design and decoration. Its companions in art are the 
peacock and the Shishi^ a kind of conventional lion, derived 
from Chinese designs ; and in such company it forms the 
constant decoration of temple and palace walls. 

The lotus is closely connected with the Buddhist relig- 
ion, and is associated therefore, in the minds of the people, 
with mortality and spirit-land. The lakes of temple 
grounds, especially those dedicated to the water goddess 
Benten, are frequently planted with lotuses. The fine 
wide moats of the Tokio Castle abound in these water 
plants, which imparts to them much beauty in the season. 
Wherever undisturbed pools and channels of muddy water 
exist, the lotus is to be found, and even the ditches beside 
the railway connecting Tokio with its port, are rendered 
gay in the summer by the lotus flowers in bloom. As the 
peony is said to be the national flower of China, so the 
lotus is called the national flower of India, the source and 
centre of Buddhism. It is therefore considered out of place 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 277 

as a decoration for occasions of festivity and rejoicing, being 
suggestive of a spiritual life ; but it is constantly used for 
obsequies and other sacred ceremonies. The lotus serves 
as a suitable theme for religious contemplation, and is the 
favourite flower of monastic and temple retreats ; the best 
displays are therefore to be seen in the lakes of the old 
temple groves of Kioto and other cities. 

The chrysanthemum is the flower of Autumn and the 
triumph of Japanese floricultural skill. Remarkable variety 
in form and colour of blossom is produced in the specimens 
cultivated in the gardens of the court and nobility. The 
chrysanthemum flower, in its most exuberant form, loses its 
disc-like character, and presents a combination of long oval 
petals, partly extended, and partly curling inwards, exhib- 
iting in contrast the different tints of face and back ; 
whilst, in its most eccentric and artificial shape, it assumes 
the character of a confused mop of thread-like petals, more 
curious than beautiful. 

The chrysanthemum is sometimes spoken of as the 
national flower of Japan, a rank really belonging to the 
cherry-blossom ; and this misconception is probably owing 
to the former being used as one of the crests of the Impe- 
rial House. The flower has always been much honoured 
by the Court, and as early as the time of the Emperor 
Heizei, in the Ninth Century, garden parties were held in 
the Palace for the purpose of celebrating its blossoming 
time, just as, at the present day, a yearly chrysanthemum 
show takes place in the Imperial grounds. These ancient 



278 JAPAN 

celebrations seem to have partaken of a truly pastoral char- 
acter, the courtiers wearing the plucked blossoms in their 
hair, drinking wine and composing verses upon the beauties 
of the flowers. The modern chrysanthemum displays in 
the Palace gardens are more like our own flower-shows in 
the social conventionality of their arrangements ; but the 
numerous variety, of every imaginable colour and profusion 
of shape, arranged in long open rustic sheds, forms a bril- 
liant and imposing scene hardly rivalled by any flower-show 
in the world. 

^ There are said to be in Japan two hundred and sixty- 
nine colour varieties of the chrysanthemum, of which sixty- 
three are yellow, eighty-seven white, thirty-two purple, 
thirty red, thirty-one pale pink, twelve russet, and fourteen 
^ of mixed colours. A fancy prevails that in this flower the 
same tint is never exactly reproduced, and that in this it 
resembles the endless variety of the human countenance. 
Blooming longer than most flowers, the chrysanthemum 
has come to be associated with longevity. In the province 
of Kai, a hill, called Chrysanthemum Mount, overhangs a 
river of clear water, into which the petals fall, and a belief ' 
exists that long life is assured by drinking the water of this 
stream. A favourite motive of decoration, which may be 
seen in numerous conventional designs, is the chrysanthe- 
mum blossom floating in running water. A custom also 
survives of placing small blossoms or petals in the cup 
during the wine-drinking which takes place during the fes- 
tival of the ninth day of the ninth month. 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 279 

The ordinary varieties of the chrysanthemum are to be 
seen in great abundance in the street fairs during the 
autumn months. Dango-zaka, in Tokio, is the favourite 
popular resort, and here the flowers are trained into 
groups of figures and animals, representing historical sub- 
jects. 

The chrysanthemum is associated with the crane, the 
royal bird of Japan. 

The paucity of important flowering trees and plants in 
Autumn, has, perhaps, led the Japanese to make much of 
certain simple plants, comparatively insignificant in them- 
selves, but gathering importance and interest in combina- 
tion. As has already been pointed out, almost every month 
of the year is associated with a special blossom, and the 
calendar would not be complete without a reference to 
these flowers of late Autumn. These seven plants are : 
the lespedeza, the morning-glory, the eularia japonka^ the 
Valeriana villosa^ the valerina officinalis^ the pueraria thun- 
hergiana and the carnation. Perhaps the favourite of these 
is the lespedeza^ of which there are several kinds, some hav- 
ing pink, others white, and others yellow flowers. Grow- 
ing wild on grassy moors, it is associated with wild horses, 
deer, and the wild boar, together with which it is often de- 
picted in different designs. The deer is specially associ- 
ated with the Autumn time, and represented also with 
other Autumn flowers and with the reddening maple. The 
seven Autumn plants are grown together in the Hiyak-kwa- 
yen^ or garden-of-a-hundred-flowers, at Mukojima. The 



28o JAPAN 

temple grounds of the Hagi-dera^ near Kameido, are fa- 
mous for their show of lespedexa flowers. 

A notice of the floral festivals of the year would not be 
complete without reference to the maple, — for the redden- 
ing leaf of the maple, like the foliage of many other flower- 
less trees, is regarded as a flower in Japan. The rich tints 
of the changing leaves of certain deciduous trees, hardly 
distinguishable from the colouring of blossoming shrubs 
such as the azalea, form a favourite object of attraction 
during the Autumn months. The native term Momiji, 
which is generally translated maple, is, strictly speaking, a 
general name applied to many trees which redden in the 
Fall. Of the maple itself, there are many varieties, dis- 
tinguished both by the form of their leaves and the tone of 
their colour. No garden is considered complete without 
its group of maple trees, placed beside some artificial hill 
towards the West, to receive additional splendour from the 
setting sun. Grassy slopes and valleys are planted with 
these trees, with the object of bringing into one limited 
prospect the red and golden tints in which the natural 
scenery of the wooded hills abounds. The grand slopes 
above the river at Arashiyama, noted in the Spring-time 
for their show of cherry blossoms, make a fine display of 
scarlet maple foliage in the Autumn. At Ko-no-dai, a fa- 
mous prominence commanding a view of the whole plain 
of Tokio, there are some fine maple trees, noted for their 
enormous size. A spot called Tatsuta, in the province of 
Yamato, is renowned for its splendid maples, which line 



THE FLOWERS OF JAPAN 281 

the banks of the river, and are in full glory about the end 
of October. At Oji, a suburb of Tokio, the slopes of a 
natural glen between the hills are thickly planted with fine 
specimens of these trees, forming a most romantic spot, 
where, from the galleries of a rustic arbour, may be seen 
the foliage in all its burning splendour. Shinagawa and 
Meguro, other well-known spots in the vicinity of the 
capital, have also good groups of maple-trees which attract 
many sightseers. Picnicing and mushroom-gathering 
are pastimes which accompany the viewing of the maple. 
In the poems and pictures of the country the maple is as- 
sociated with deer. 



THE TEA-CEREMONIES {Cha-no-yu) 

AUGUSTUS W. FRANKS 



1 



^HE Tea-Ceremonies, known as the '^ Cha-no-yu," 
do not appear to have been noticed at any length 
in any English work, though a short account of 
them, obtained from Baron Alexander von Siebold, may be 
found in the English translation of Dr. Jagor's Travels in 
the Philippines. A much fuller description of them has 
been published by Dr. Funk, in the sixth part of the 
Mittheilungen der deutschen Gesellschaft fiir Natur und Vol- 
kerkunde Ostasiens (Yokohama, 1874), from which our ac- 
count of them has been condensed, with some additional 
information kindly furnished by Mr. Kasawara. 

The cultivation of tea is said to have been introduced 
into Japan from China in a. d. 805, though it did not take 
firm hold till later. It is uncertain when the tea-cere- 
monies or clubs first commenced; and they do not appear 
to have adopted fixed rules till the middle of the Fifteenth 
Century. These rules were made by a Japanese named 
Shuko, under the patronage of the Shogun Yosimasa (1443- 
1473) » l^ter the famous Taiko Hideyoshi appointed another 
Japanese, named Rikiu, to revise the old statutes, and the 
rules drawn up by him are still observed. 

There are, or rather were, several varieties in the ob- 

282 



THE TEA-CEREMONIES 283 

servance of the ceremonies, of which the principal are 
Senke, Enshu, Oribe, Matsu-o, and Yabu-no-uchi. Under 
the present regime they are nothing more than friendly re- 
unions ; the ceremonies, in fact, are dying out, and will 
probably have entirely disappeared in a few years. 

The place destined for the ceremonies is either a separate 
building, or an apartment removed from the rest of the 
house, and it was known under the names of Kakoi (the 
enclosed), or Sukiya. It was covered with shingles, and 
consisted of a room usually measuring four and a half 
mats (a mat equals about six by three feet), or, about 
eighty-one square feet ; on one side was another smaller 
room, called Midzu-ya (water-room), where the utensils 
were arranged ; on the other side was another small room 
for receiving the guests. Surrounding the house or apart- 
ment was a garden, Ro-ji (dewy ground). 

Two modes of conducting the ceremonies were observed 
— the winter and summer modes. In the former the garden 
was strewn with fir leaves, the guests retained their shoes, 
and the furnace for the kettle was a pit in the floor filled 
with ashes. In the latter, the garden was decked out with 
flowers, the guests took off their shoes, and a portable 
earthenware furnace (^furo) was used. 

The inside of the room was to be as plain as possible, 
though costly woods might be employed if the means of the 
host admitted it. The walls had a dado of white paper, 
and on one side was a niche {toko)^ with an inscribed roll 
and flowers, the latter sometimes placed in a hanging vase. 



284 JAPAN 

The hours fixed for the invitations were 4 to 6 A. m., noon, 
or 6 p. M. The guests, assembling in a pavilion (machi at) 
in the garden, announce their arrival by striking on a 
wooden tablet (^hari) or bell, when the host himself or a 
servant appears to conduct them into the chamber. The 
entrance being only three feet square, the host kneels and 
lets the guests creep in before him. They being seated in 

4- 

a semicircle, the host goes to the door of the side room in 
which the utensils are kept, saying : " I am very glad that 
you are come, and thank you much. I now go to make 
up the fire." He then brings in a basket (sumi-tort) con- 
taining charcoal in pieces of a prescribed length, a brush 
{mitsu-bd)^ made of three feathers, a pair of tongs {hibashi\ 
the stand of the kettle i^kama-shiki)^ iron handles for the 
kettle, a lacquer box^ containing incense^ (kohako)^ and 
some paper. He again leaves the chamber to bring in a 
vessel with ashes {hai-ki) and its spoon. He then makes 
up the fire and burns incense, to overpower the smell of 
the charcoal. While he is thus occupied, the guests beg 
to be allowed to inspect the incense-box, generally an ob- 
ject of value, which passes from hand to hand, and the last 
guest returns it to the host. This closes the first part of 
the ceremony, and both host and guests withdraw. 

The second part commences with eating, and, as it is a 
rule that nothing should be left, the guests carry off, wrapped 

1 This is used in the summer mode. In the winter a porcelain or earth- 
enware box {kogo^ is employed. 

2 In the winter odoriferous pastilles are burned j in the summer sandal 
wood. 




JAPANESE TEA-ROOM. 



THE TEA-CEREMONIES 285 

up in paper, any fragments that remain. The utensils used 
in this part of the ceremony are as follows: (i) an iron 
kettle {kama) with a copper or iron lid, resting on a stand 
{kama-shiki) ; (2) a table or stand [daisu) of mulberry wood, 
two feet high ; (3) two tea jars {cha-ire) containing the fine 
powdered tea, and enclosed in bags of brocade ; (4) a vessel 
containing fresh water (midzu-sasht)^ which is placed under 
the daisu, (5) a tea-bowl of porcelain, or earthenware 
{cha-wan\ or, when of large size {temmoku)^ simple in 
form, but remarkable for its antiquity or historical associa- 
tions. Besides this, there is a bamboo whisk {cha-sen) ; a 
silk cloth i^fukusd)^ usually purple, for wiping the utensils \ 
a spoon {cha-shaku) to take the tea out of the cha-ire ; and 
a water ladle {shaku). All these objects are brought in 
singly by the host in their prescribed order. 

After solemn salutations and obeisances, the utensils are 
wiped and some of the powdered tea is placed in the tea 
bowl, hot water is poured on it, and the whole is vigorously 
stirred with the whisk until it looks like thin spinach ; a 
boy then carries the bowl to the chief guest, from whom it 
passes round the party to the last, who returns it empty to 
the boy. The empty bowl is then passed round once more 
that the guests may admire it. The utensils are then 
washed by the host, and the ceremony is at an end. 

The rules forbid any conversation on worldly subjects, 
such as politics or scandal; flattery is also forbidden, and, 
properly speaking, the meeting should not last longer than 
two hours. No distinction of ranks is observed. There 



286 JAPAN 

can, however, be no doubt that in early times these socie- 
ties were encouraged by the princes, that their retainers 
might have an opportunity of quietly promoting the polit- 
ical designs of their lords. 

The ceremonial described above is that known as the 
" Koi-cha^^ and Dr. Funk states that he was present on one 
of these occasions when the tea bowl and water jar were 
exhibited with much pride as old Korean ; the host dilated 
on the age and origin of the various utensils, and men- 
tioned, for instance, that the bag of one of the tea jars was 
made from the dress of the celebrated dancer, Kogaru^ who 
lived in the time of Taiko Hideyoshi. 

There is another form of the tea-ceremonies, the " U}«- 
cha^'' (weak tea), which differs from the first in some re- 
spects. It is far less ceremonious, the tea is thinner and 
of inferior quality, and the bowl is filled afresh for each 
guest, being rinsed out with water each time. The tea jar 
is also diff^erent, being a natsume made of lacquer. 

The tea used in both these ceremonies comes from Uji, 
near Kioto, the most celebrated tea district of Japan, and 
is differently prepared from the commencement according 
to the ceremony for which it is intended. These cere- 
monies were the cause of the large prices occasionally paid 
for the vessels of pottery used in them, especially while 
they were in the height of fashion ; hence we hear that, in 
the time of Taiko Hideyoshi, a single tea bowl of Seto ware 
was sold for some thousands of dollars. 



PILGRIMAGES 

BASIL HALL CHAMBERLAIN 

THE reputation of most Japanese shrines is bounded 
by a somewhat narrow horizon. The Yedo folk 
— the Eastern Japanese — make pilgrimages to 
Narita, and up Fuji and Oyama. Devout natives of the 
central provinces round Kioto repair to the great monastery 
of Koya-san, or perform what is termed the " tour of the 
holy places of Yamato " {Tamato-meguri\ including such 
celebrated temples as Miwa, Hase, and Tonomine; and 
they also constitute the majority of the pilgrims to the 
shrine of the Sun-goddess in Ise. The religious centre of 
Shikoku is a place called Kompira or Kotohira ; in the 
north that rank belongs to the sacred island of Kinkwazan, 
while the Inland Sea has another sacred and most lovely 
island — Miyajima — where none are ever allowed either to 
be born or to be buried, and where the tame deer, protected 
by a gentle piety, come and feed out of the stranger's hand. 
But some of the greatest shrines have branches in other 
provinces. Kompira has a branch in most Japanese cities ; 
the great Kioto temple to the Fox-goddess Inari has a branch 
in almost every village. Again there are shrines whose 
very nature is multiple. Such, for instance, are the Thirty- 
Three Holy Places of Kwannon, the Goddess of Mercy, 

287 



288 JAPAN 

Pilgrimages are generally of a social nature. There exist 
innumerable pious associations called ko or koju.^ whose 
members contribute each a cent a month, and then, when 
the proper time of year comes round, a certain number of 
persons are chosen by lot to represent the rest at the shrine 
of their devotion, all expenses being defrayed out of the 
common fund. When these representatives form a con- 
siderable band, one of them, who has made the pilgrimage 
before, acts as leader and cicerone, recounting to his gaping 
audience the legend of each minor shrine that is passed on 
the way, and otherwise assisting and controlling the brethren. 
The inns to be put up at on the road are mostly fixed by 
custom, a flag or wooden board inscribed with the name of 
the pilgrim association being hung up over the entrance. 
Inns are proud to display many such authentic signs of 
constant patronage, and visitors to Japan will often notice 
establishments whose whole front is thus adorned. As a 
general rule, the pilgrims wear no special garb : but those 
bound for Fuji, Ontake, and other high mountains, may be 
distinguished by their white clothes and very broad and 
sloping straw hats. While making the ascent, they often 
ring a bell and chant an invocation which, being interpreted, 
signifies : " May our six senses ^ be pure, and the weather 
on the honourable mountain be fair ! " 

The Japanese, as has often been remarked, take their 

^ The six senses, according to the Buddhists are the eyes, ears, nose, 
tongue, body, and heart. The pilgrims repeat the invocation, for the most 
part, without understanding it, as most of the words are Chinese. 



PILGRIMAGES 289 

religion lightly. Ise and other favourite goals of piety are 
equally noted for the distractions which they provide of an 
evening. Nor is much inquiry made into the doctrines 
held at any special shrine. Kompira u^as Buddhist and is 
now Shinto, having been made so by order of government 
during the present reign. But the pilgrims flock there all 
the same, the sanctity of the name of the shrine over- 
balancing any lapses in the theology of the priests. Nor 
need this be matter for wonderment, seeing that the pil- 
grim ranks are recruited almost exclusively from the 
peasant and artisan classes, whose members scarcely realize 
that Buddhism and Shinto are two separate cults, and are 
prepared to pay equal respect to all the superhuman powers 
that be. When tradesmen of any standing join a pilgrim 
association, they mostly do so in order to extend their busi- 
ness connection and to see new places cheaply and sociably. 
People who remember the "good old times," assert that 
pilgrimages are on the wane. Probably this is true. The 
influence of religion has been weakened by the infiltration 
of Western ideas of " progress " and material civilization. 
Then, too, taxation weighs far more heavily than of yore, 
so that there is less money to spend on non-essentials. 
Still many thousands of persons, mostly pilgrims, annually 
ascend Fuji ; and the concourse of worshippers at the tem- 
^ple of Ikegami, near Tokio, is so great that on the I2th 
October, 1897 (^^^^ being the annual festival), over forty- 
seven thousand persons passed through the wicket at the 
little country railway station, where the daily average is only 



290 JAPAN 

some five hundred. Many, doubtless, were mere holiday- 
makers, and the scene in the grounds was that of a great 
holiday-making. The happy crowds trot off to amuse 
themselves, and just do a little bit of praying incidentally, — 
give a tap at the gong, and fling a copper into the box, — so 
as to be sure of being on the right side. They are ten 
thousand miles away from Benares, and from Mecca, and 
from the Scotch Kirk. 

The holy objects which Japanese pilgrims go out for to 
see and to bow down before, belong exactly to the same 
category as the holy objects of Christian devotion, modified 
only by local colouring. Minute fragments of the 
cremated body of a Buddha (these are called shari)^ foot- 
prints of a Buddha, images and pictures by famous ancient 
saints, such as the Abbot Kobo Daishi and Prince Shotoku 
Taishi, whose activity in this direction was phenomenal if 
legend can at all be trusted — holy swords, holy garments, 
wells that never run dry, statues so lifelike that when 
struck by an impious hand, blood has been known to flow 
from the wound, — these things and things like these are 
what will be brought to the notice of the traveller curious 
to pry into the arena of Japanese piety. 



ORNAMENTAL ARTS 

GEORGE ASHDOWN AUDSLET 

OF all the countries of the Orient, Japan holds a 
pre-eminent position in all matters connected with 
the Ornamental and Decorative Arts ; and in sev- 
eral branches of art-manufacture it stands at the head of 
the civilized v^orld. Japanese Art, is, however, now so 
well known and so widely appreciated in Europe and 
America, that it is quite unnecessary to enlarge on these 
facts; every one who takes any interest in the subject of 
art-industry is acquainted with the wonderful works in 
lacquer, ivory, metal, embroidery, enamel, and pottery 
which have reached us from Japan, and now adorn so 
many of our public and private collections ; and these 
alone are sufficient to prove the exalted position the Japa- 
nese art workmen have held for centuries and still hold at 
the present time. 

It has been the fashion to remark that art and manipula- 
tive skill in Japan are things of the past : but investigation 
with an unprejudiced mind hardly supports this view. In- 
deed, the careful examination of many examples of work 
executed during the last few years has convinced us that 
the art workman of to-day is quite as clever and painstak- 
ing as he of two or three centuries ago. Why should he 

291 



292 JAPAN 

not be, with all the advantages the study of the works of 
the past gives him ? It is questionable if modern science 
can be included in his advantages ; one thing is certain, it 
has supplied him with bright and glaring dyes and pigments, 
which he has, in the interests of commerce, been induced 
to adopt, frequently to the total suppression of his natural 
taste. One of the characteristics of the best periods of 
Japanese Art is a peculiarly quiet and refined scale of 
colour, in which the harmonies of analogy are generally 
more marked than the harmonies of contrast. Vivid con- 
trasts are not of frequent occurrence, except for the pro- 
duction of some startling effects, as, for instance, where a 
bright red sun, with a white crane flying across it, is placed 
directly upon a light blue ground. Brilliant colours asso- 
ciated with rich gilding are lavishly employed by the Japa- 
nese architects in the decoration of temples and shrines; 
indeed, in the application of brilliant colour, both on plain 
and carved surfaces, they rival the decorations of the 
Alhambra. But the amount of shade which of necessity 
pervades such elaborate and complicated wooden structures 
as the Japanese temples, exercises an important modifying 
influence upon the bright colouring and gilding, refining 
and subduing vivid contrasts, and blending all into a pleas- 
ing harmony. The effects of the decorations are ever 
changing with the changing daylight ; salient portions now 
sparkling in the sunshine, now retiring into shade ; and 
parts buried in deep shadow under the powerful sunshine 
come forward in rich hues under the softer and more difr^ 



ORNAMENTAL ARTS 293 

fused light. We may safely state that a careful study of 
all the departments of decorative art leaves us no alterna- 
tive but to pass a favourable opinion on the skill of the 
Japanese colourists ; they are unquestionably in advance of 
all Oriental artists in this respect. 

In metallurgy, modern science has taught the Japanese 
founders nothing ; for centuries they have been unapproach- 
able in the composition of bronze and other alloys for or- 
namental purposes, their skill being only surpassed by that 
of the artists who wrought them into quaint and expressive 
pictures; or into sword-guards, vases, perfume-burners, 
domestic utensils, and countless other objects of utility and 
beauty. The Japanese appear to have been for many cen- 
turies acquainted with all the processes of Ornamental 
Metal- Working ; and in certain branches have surpassed 
the artists of all other countries. With great manipulative 
skill, untiring patience and consummate taste they have 
produced works in the precious metals, upon grounds of 
iron and bronze, which are unsurpassed, and we may say 
unsurpassable, as examples of Ornamental or Decorative 
Art in their own class. 

The Japanese have always shown a warm love for the 
common productions of nature, and have with the greatest 
ingenuity bent them to their service in the Ornamental 
Arts. Such materials as finely marked and coloured woods, 
ivory, mother-of-pearl, tortoise-shell, coral, metallic ores, 
pure metals, alloys, rock-crystal and coloured stones have 
one and all been manipulated with most happy results, es- 



294 JAPAN 

pecially in their Applied and Incrusted Work. To this 
list must be added the sap of the Rhus vernicifera^ which 
plays the most important part in the greatest art industry 
of the country, being the material from which all the Japa- 
nese Lacquer is made. 

The conditions under which the old artists and artificers 
cultivated their special talents were those most favourable 
to the production of perfect works of art. Living under 
the protection and in the establishments of the great Dai- 
mios, perfectly free from all the cares, and supplied with 
all the necessaries of life, they concentrated every thought 
and expended the most loving care upon each object they 
essayed to produce. Time was of no account to them ; 
and their masters were well content to watch the gradual 
development of ideas, and the tedious processes of manipu- 
lation, which were to produce masterpieces never before 
achieved. It was under such circumstances that all the 
great artists worked for centuries prior to the suppression 
of the feudal system ; and, in examining their masterpieces, 
especially those in lacquer and metal-work, we can with 
great difficulty form any idea of the thought, skill, and 
time expended in their production. 

In examining or passing an opinion on a work of 
Ornamental Art, one cannot well separate the artistic 
design from the manipulative treatment; and in works of 
Japanese origin the separation of the two equally im- 
portant elements is a matter well-nigh impossible ; this 
springs from the fact that the artist and workman are one 




MOTHER AND CHILD, BY KENZAN (1663-1743), IN KENZAN- 
IMADO WARE. 



ORNAMENTAL ARTS 295 

individual, and that mind and hand go together in all he 
does. It is true that the artist of to-day works on tradi- 
tion to a great extent, and adopts the materials and motives 
for his designs which have been common property for 
generations ; yet, after all, there are evidences, never 
wanting, which indicate that they have been filtered 
through his own heart and seen through the window of his 
own mind. 

We are not going to press an opinion that all the 
Japanese artists have done is perfect or even good art, as 
the term is understood in the West ; on the contrary, we 
will freely admit that their works are full of imperfections 
and even distortions, especially in the schools of drawing ; 
but yet it must be maintained that in their purely 
Ornamental and Decorative Art works there are charms 
of design, quaint beauties of treatment, and immense skill 
in the graphic delineation of natural objects, so far as the 
immediate requirements extend, and in the happy use of 
different materials, which one can find in the corresponding 
works of no other nation. Special works of art in the 
shape of hanging pictures, kakemono^ are hung up on 
certain occasions, and help to relieve the extreme simplicity 
of the apartments. The most talented Japanese artists 
have produced many of their best drawings in the shape of 
kakemono; and numerous examples of great interest are 
now in the possession of European and American 
collectors. 

After all, a very careful study of Japanese art throughout 



296 JAPAN 

its extensive range, inclines us to pronounce the entire 
family of native artists deficient in purely inventive 
power. On the other hand, the marvellous patience, 
highly cultivated manipulative skill and the happy and 
lively fancy of the artisan artists of Japan, have led them 
to improve upon every idea or suggestion they have re- 
ceived from other countries. This fact may be readily 
proved by the comparison of Japanese and Chinese art 
works. China, India, and Korea have largely contributed 
to the foundation of Japanese art ; and it is not a difficult 
matter to trace their influence in the works of all the great 
periods. Every thought, however, which the Japanese 
artist has received from these nations, he has invested with 
a charm and expression peculiarly his own ; so, although 
the origin may be foreign, the work is in treatment and 
excellence altogether Japanese. 



DECORATIVE ARTS 

SIR RUTHERFORD ALCOCK 

THE school of Art due to the native genius of the 
Japanese as a race is essentially decorative, and, 
in its application, to a great degree purely in- 
dustrial. Pictorial art as understood in Europe can hardly 
be said to have any existence in Japan. Most of their 
decorative designs consist of natural objects treated in a 
conventional way. This conventionalism is, however, so 
perfect and free in its allurements that nature seems to 
suggest both the motive and the treatment. Though 
neither botanically nor ornithologically correct, their 
flowers and their birds show a truth to nature, and a habit 
of minute observation in the artist, which cannot be too 
much admired. Every blade of grass, each leaf and 
feather, has been the object of loving and patient study. 
It has been rashly assumed by some of the writers on 
Japanese Art that the Japanese do not study from nature. 
All their work is an emphatic protest against so erroneous 
a supposition. It is impossible to examine even the in- 
ferior kind of work without seeing evidences of minute 
and faithful study. It can in fact be shown conclusively 
that the Japanese have derived all their fundamental ideas 
of symmetry, so different from ours, from a close study of 

297 



298 JAPAN 

nature and her processes in the attainment of endless 
variety. 

It is a special feature in their art that, while often closely 
and minutely imitating natural objects, such as birds, 
flowers, and fishes, the especial objects of their predilec- 
tion and study, they frequently combine the facts of ex- 
ternal nature with a conventional mode of treatment better 
suited to their purpose. During the long apprenticeship 
the Japanese serve to acquire the power of writing with 
the brush the thousand complicated characters borrowed 
from the Chinese, they unconsciously cultivate the habit 
of minute observation and the power of accurate imitation, 
and with these a delicacy of touch and freedom of hand 
which only long practice could give. A hair's breadth 
deviation of a line, or the slight inclination of a dot or an 
angle, is fatal to good^caligraphy, both among the Chinese 
and the Japanese. When they come to use the pencil 
therefore in drawing, they are possessed of the finest in- 
struments in accuracy of eye and free command of the 
brush. Whether a Japanese art-worker sets himself to 
copy what he sees before him or to give play to his fancy in 
combining what he has seen with some ideal in his mind, 
the result equally shows a perfect facility of execution and 
easy grace in all the lines. 

In their methods of ornamentation the Japanese treat 
every object flatly, as do their Chinese masters to this day, 
and this to a certain extent has tended to check any prog- 
ress in pictorial art, though they have obtained other and 



DECORATIVE ARTS 299 

very admirable decorative effects. Without being, as Mr. 
Cutler/ in common with some other writers, assumes, ip-- 
norant of chiaroscuro^ or the play of light and shadow, it is 
true that they usually, though not invariably, paint in flat 
tones as on a vase and so dispense with both. It is not a 
picture so much as a decoration that they produce, but it is 
a decoration full of beauty in its harmonized tints and 
graceful freedom of design. The delicacy of touch is 
everywhere seen, whether bird, or leaf, or flower, or all 
combined be chosen as the subject. The Japanese artist 
especially excels in conveying an idea of motion in the 
swift flight of birds and gliding movements of fishes, one 
of the most difficult triumphs of art. 

It has been said that the golden age of Japanese art is 
over and gone, and that the conditions no longer exist, and 
can never be renewed, under which it has developed its 
most characteristic excellences. A feudal state in which 
the artist and the workman were generally one and the 
same person, or at least in the same feudal relation to a 
chief who was bound to support them working or idle, 
and took pride in counting among his subjects or serfs those 
who could most excel in producing objects of great beauty 
and artistic value, is a condition as little likely to return to 
Japan as the former isolation and freedom from all foreign 
influences of the people. Under these altered circum- 
stances it is to be feared that Japanese Art has culminated 
and shown the best of which it is capable. 

1 Grammar of Japanese Ornament and Design (^i88i). 



300 JAPAN 

One of the characteristic features of all Japanese art is In- 
dividuality of character in the treatment, by which the 
absence of all uniformity and monotony or sameness is 
secured. Repetition without any variation is abhorrent to 
every Japanese. Fret patterns are in constant use in all 
Japanese Art, sometimes in the form of borders, and more 
frequently in diapers, which they use with excellent effect 
on surfaces in filling up and varying the spaces, in combi- 
nation with floral and other designs. Their love of variety 
leads them to adopt several different diapers in covering any 
surface, often enclosing them in irregular-shaped compart- 
ments, fitting into each other, or detached according to the 
fancy of the artist and the shape of the object ornamented. 
The same kind of ornamentation and decorative art is car- 
ried out in their woodwork, as may constantly be seen in 
their cabinets of marquetrie and inlaid boxes. Their predi- 
lection for geometrical forms is best to be seen in their 
great variety of diapers. Nor must their floral diapers be 
overlooked, consisting as they do of an almost infinite va- 
riety for covering whole surfaces, in which flowers and 
foliage form the material. In the spaces of decoration as 
in all else, the Japanese artist studiously avoids uniformity 
or repetition of exact spacing. He repeats, but with the 
greatest irregularity possible, to disguise, as it were, the 
repetition of what is in effect the same design or pattern. 

In close connection with the diaper system of orna- 
mentation is that known as powdering, familiar enough in 
European Art ; but in Japan, following the principle of ir- 



DECORATIVE ARTS 301 

regularity, the decorator avoids any regular distribution of 
the design adopted. Lastly, there is a style of ornamenta- 
tion peculiarly Japanese which consists in the use of me- 
dallions grouped or scattered over a surface — of various 
colours and forms — and filled in with different diapers, the 
whole producing an effect as pleasing as it was novel when 
first introduced to European eyes. 

In all manipulations of metals and amalgams the 
Japanese are great masters. They not only " are in pos- 
session of secret processes unknown to workmen in 
Europe," by which they produce effects beyond the reach 
of the latter, but show a mastery of their material in the 
moulding and designing of their productions which imparts 
a peculiar freedom and grace to their best work. A lotus 
leaf and flower and seed-pod they will produce with inimi- 
table fidelity in the subtle curves and undulating lines and 
surfaces, and in the most minute markings of leaf and 
flower. So birds and fishes and insects cast in bronze 
seem instinct with life, so true are they to nature, while at 
other times the same objects are adopted for a purely con- 
ventional mode of treatment. The inlaying and overlay- 
ing of metals, bronze, silver, and steel, more than rival the 
best productions of the ateliers of Paris or Berlin, and con- 
stitute a special art-industry, with some features of finish 
and excellence not yet attained in Europe. Of the metal- 
lurgic triumphs of art which the Japanese may justly claim 
over all competitors, Chinese, Indian, or European, perhaps 
the greatest is the perfection to which they have brought 



302 JAPAN 

the designs in " Shakudo" an amalgam of which are usually 
made the brooches or buttons used to fasten their tobacco- 
pouches and pocket-books, or to ornament the handles of 
their swords. " Shakudo " is chiefly of iron, relieved by 
partial overlaying of gold, silver and bronze. 

In the varied applications of the art of enamelling, the 
Japanese have run their great rivals in cloisonne work very 
close, although upon the whole the Chinese have the su- 
periority, their colouring being more brilliant and finely 
toned in harmony, and their work more solid and satisfac- 
tory both to the eye and the touch. A dull and sombre 
tone is generally adopted in Japanese cloisonne work, which 
much impairs the beauty of their good workmanship in its 
general effect. 

There is a great field for the display of their originality 
and love of variety in the wall-papers, which are much used 
to ornament their walls and screens. What has already 
been said of their decorative system and methods of surface 
ornamentation applies to their wall-papers ; and the system 
itself is nowhere so severely tried, because something of 
mechanical reproduction is unavoidable. Whether sten- 
cilled or printed, the design of a single square must of ne- 
cessity be the same in each. By what force of imagination 
and ingenuity they disguise the effect of exact repetition, 
and lead the eye away from noticing the uniformity, can 
only be realized by inspection of the papers covering the 
walls of an apartment, and no description could supply a 
substitute. 



DECORATIVE ARTS 303 

Of textile fabrics and embroidery, in both of which they 
have developed an industry peculiarly their own, something 
of the same kind may be said as of their wall-papers. 
These fabrics have, however, been so familiarized in Eng- 
land by the eager adoption of the best and most novel in 
female costumes that their chief characteristics must be very 
generally known. It was the custom in former times foi 
each daimio to have his private looms, for weaving the bro- 
cades which he himself and his wife and family required, 
and also the fabrics of less costly materials for his retainers. 
The robes manufactured for the court at Kioto and Yedo 
were in like manner only to be had from the Imperial 
looms ; some of these, a gift from the Shogun on a min-. 
ister taking leave of his court, were to be seen in the Lon-. 
don exhibition of 1862. 

But in many of the more common textile fabrics the best 
evidence perhaps may be found of the artistic feeling of 
the nation, and the universality of art work. Towels and 
dusters of the least expensive material often display very 
choice designs — as do also the Turkish and Syrian fabrics 
of the same quality. A piece of bamboo, a broken branch 
of blossoms, or a flight of birds in counter-changed colours, 
suffices in their hands to produce the most charming effect, 
in the most perfect taste. Their embroidery has never 
been excelled in beauty of design, assortment of colours, 
and perfection of needlework. 

It is true, and strange as true, that the Japanese have 
apparently never sought to overstep the limits of purely 



304 JAPAN 

decorative art, and have thus stopped short of the art 
development of other nations. Whether this limitation 
be from some organic defect, or is merely a result of their 
neglect to study the human figure and master the diffi- 
culties of proportion seen in greatest perfection there, it is 
difficult to determine. Certain it is, they have never ad- 
vanced so far. They have always been content to treat 
the human figure in a conventional style, not much in ad- 
vance of the Egyptian rendering, and quite incompatible 
with good drawing. 



ARCHITECTURE 
Houses — Castles — Pagodas — Bridges 

CHRISTOPHER DRESSER 

THE two great facts now before us which concern 
our study of Japanese art are these, — Shinto, which 
has influenced the home of every Japanese for 
a long series of centuries, has stimulated the people to 
the most conscientious work ; and Buddhism has created a 
love for all natural objects. These two influences will 
account for many of those qualities which characterize 
Japanese works, be they temples, objects of utility or orna- 
ments. 

Before we begin to consider Japanese architecture itself, 
we must look at one or two of those circumstances which 
have always modified the architecture of a nation, as the 
climate, the materials at command for the erection of edi- 
fices, and the wants which have consequently to be met by 
the production of a building. 

Although Japan has a considerable rainfall, the rain is 
almost exclusively confined to one season of the year 
(about six weeks, between the end of April and the early 
part of June), and this wet period is followed by a contin- 
uance of wet weather. 

This is a general statement, but the climate is by no 

305 



3o6 JAPAN 

means the same throughout the whole of Japan. In the 
central portion cold is intense on some winter days, while 
the heat is great in summer ; but the long and severe frosts 
of the north are unknown at the Satsuma end of the 
country. 

The Japanese seek shelter from the rain, and they desire 
houses which give shade from the sun. They also require 
buildings which allow of the freest circulation of air. They 
are a hardy people, and can stand cold, and in the warmer 
season lead what is practically an outdoor life. At this 
period of the year, and indeed through most of the winter 
days, the window-like surroundings of their houses are re- 
moved, when all that remains is a roof supported on up- 
rights. 

But although a Japanese house is a building intended to 
afford shelter from rain and sun, the nature of the building 
is influenced by other causes. Japan is a land of earth- 
quakes. And this brings us to one of the most singular 
facts connected with the structure of Japanese buildings ; 
— a method adopted with the special view of insuring 
safety during these periods of the earth's vibration. 

Japanese houses and temples are put together in a solid 
and simple manner, each work being complete in itself, and 
having an altogether independent existence. Thus a Jap- 
anese house is in no way built upon foundations, or fixed 
to the ground on which it rests. It stands upon a series 
of legs, and these legs usually rest on round-topped stones 
of such a height as will, during the rainy season, support 




< 



ARCHITECTURE 307 

the timber uprights above any water that may lie upon the 
ground. 

I am aware that much damage has occurred through 
some of the severe earthquakes felt in Japanese cities ; 
and one that passed across Yedo within the memory of liv- 
ing men caused great destruction of property and loss of life. 
I am confident that such calamities as these are due simply 
to the fact that the Japanese place tile roofs upon their 
houses, for these tiles can readily be shaken loose and are 
heavy and dangerous. The Japanese suffer much from 
fire, and it is probable that the dread of falling sparks led 
to the use of tiles instead of thatch about five hundred 
years since. Thatch in Japan is formed of straw, certain 
fibrous materials, or layers of the inner bark of a kind of 
cone-bearing tree. It looks well, but in warm weather is 
highly combustible. Some of the prettiest roofs that I have 
seen in Japan are formed of what I might describe as little 
wooden tiles. 

Certainly there is but little danger of being injured from 
a shock if the building is of wood and the roof is of a mate- 
rial which is light and can be held securely in its place. 
Yet the Europeans in Tokio are encouraging the Japanese 
to build European houses with stones and bricks ; and the 
Government offices are of these materials, while it is pro- 
posed that the new Mikado's palace be also of European 
character. To me, nothing could be more absurd than this 
departure from architectural custom which has had the 
sanction of ages ; and the result of this incongruous inno- 



3o8 JAPAN 

vation will probably be a return to the native style of build- 
ing after the occurrence of some dire calamity. 

It may be argued that Japanese castles are built of stone ; 
but it must be remembered that these are formed of vast 
blocks so arranged, one on the other, that each wall is of 
pyramidal shape, slanting from the base to the apex in the 
old Egyptian manner. These walls are also supported from 
within, and are tied together with timbers of great size ; 
indeed it would almost be fair to say that the castle towers 
are wooden buildings of immense strength faced with slant- 
ing walls which consist of stones, — each stone being in 
some cases more than twenty feet in length. 

A notable instance of the Japanese understanding of the 
conditions under which they exist occurs in the manner of 
giving security to pagodas. Pagodas are often of great 
height, yet many have existed for seven hundred years, and 
have withstood successfully the many vibrations of the 
ground, which must have inevitably achieved their over- 
throw had they been erections of stone or brick. 

When I first ascended a pagoda I was struck with the 
amount of timber employed in its construction ; and I 
could not help feeling that the material here wasted was 
even absurdly excessive. But what offended my feelings 
most was the presence of an enormous log of wood in the 
centre of the structure, which ascended from its base to its 
apex. At the top this mass of timber was nearly two feet 
in diameter, and lower down a log equally large was bolted 
to each of the four sides of this central mass. I was so 




PAGODA AT ASAKUSA. 



ARCHITECTURE 309 

surprised to see this waste of timber that I called the atten- 
tion of my good friend Sakata to the matter ; and especially 
denounced the use of the centre block. To my astonish- 
ment he told me that the structure must be strong to sup- 
port the vast central mass. In my ignorance I replied that 
the centre part was not supported by the sides, but upon 
reaching the top I found this monstrous central mass sus- 
pended, like the clapper of a bell; and when I descended I 
could, by lying on the ground, see that there was an inch 
of space intervening between it and the earth which formed 
the floor of the pagoda. 

The pagoda is to a Buddhist temple what a spire is to 
a Christian church; and by its clever construction it is 
enabled to retain its vertical position even during the con- 
tinuance of earthquake shocks : for by the swinging of this 
vast pendulum, the centre of gravity is kept within the 
base. 

I now understood the reason for that lavish use of timber 
which I had so rashly pronounced to be useless j and I see 
that there is a method in Japanese construction which is 
worthy of high appreciation. In the absence of any other 
instance, the employment of this scientific method of keep- 
ing the pagoda upright shows how carefully the Japanese 
have thought out the requirements to be met. 

In speaking of structure reference ought to be made to 
the bridges of Japan. These, some have said, prove that 
the Japanese have no true understanding of the principles 
of construction. To me it seems that we might as well 



310 JAPAN 

deny the existence of structural knowledge in England, 
because in certain parts of the country we find planks span- 
ning rivers, and other ill contrived arrangements for the 
crossing of brooks, as deny to the Japanese a knowledge 
which they possess to a remarkable degree, because we find 
in their bridges instances of false construction. 

Japanese bridges are of many kinds : — some are most 
primitive in character, others are of a complex nature ; while 
some show an understanding of true structural qualities. 

The most simple bridge — if bridge it may be called — 
used for the passage of rivers where there is but little 
traffic consists of two trunks of trees placed side by side, 
and having one extremity fixed at one side of the river, 
while the other, which reaches within jumping distance of 
the opposite side, is held in its position by a rope fastened 
to a peg at some little distance up the stream. But from 
this they advance through every conceivable degree of 
complexity. 

There are bridges made of piles of fagots. There are 
bridges made of straight bamboos, resting on supports in 
the river so that the bridge is flat. There are others simi- 
larly formed only with the centre raised so that the bridge 
somewhat resembles an inverted V. There is also a bridge 
in Japan formed of stout planks, which rest on the de- 
capitated branching tops of two large trees. There are 
bridges supported by a complicated system of bracketing; 
there are others consisting of semicircular arches ; while in 
Kioto we find what is called the " spectacle bridge," — a 



ARCHITECTURE 311 

bridge with two circular openings through which the water 
flows. But what has caused Europeans to regard the Jap- 
anese as devoid of a knowledge of structure is the fact that 
some of the bridges which have the arch form are yet propped 
by supports. As these supports come in contact with 
the under surface of the arch, such bridges reveal no un- 
derstanding of structural qualities. So far as I have seen, 
these curved and yet supported bridges are invariably 
formed of wood ; hence they differ widely from arched 
structures formed of stone. Yet if Japan contains many il- 
lustrations of false structure, these do not prove that Japan 
does not possess men who have perfect understanding of 
true structural principles. 

The Japanese have never been great engineers, but they 
have, undoubtedly been great architects. Architecture in- 
volves a knowledge of structure, but engineering does not 
necessarily involve any knowledge of the beautiful, as we 
so often discover to our dismay in England. A man may 
be able to construct an edifice so that it will stand securely, 
but he may be altogether unable to erect a beautiful build- 
ing. No one could look upon either the great temples of 
Shiba or of Nikko without feeling that the architect of these 
glorious buildings understood perfectly the principles both 
of construction and beauty. 



PAINTING 

WILLIAM ANDERSON 

JAPANESE pictorial art in its main principles of style 
and technique must be regarded as a scion of the 
more ancient art of China, in which the characters 
of the parent stock have been varied by native grafts. In 
its motives, it claims a share of originality at least equal to 
that of any art extant ; in the range and excellence of its 
decorative applications it takes perhaps the first place in the 
world ; but in the qualities of scientific completeness it falls 
much below the standard of modern Europe. 

Regarded as a whole, it is an art of great potentiality, 
but incomplete development. It displays remarkable beau- 
ties and obvious faults ; but while the latter are pardonable 
and remediable effects of a mistaken reverence for the 
traditional conventions, the former demonstrate the existence 
of qualities that mere academical teaching could never 
supply. 

To differentiate the principal characters of the leading 
schools, it may be said that of the older, the Buddhist is the 
most ancient, the most strictly traditional, the most ornate, 
but in certain examples the noblest and most impressive; 
the Chinese school, with the Sesshien and Kano branches, 
displays the greatest caligraphic power, but the least inveyi- 

313 




KAKEMONO, BY HOKUSAI, REPRESENTING OFUKU THROWING 
BEANS AT A DEMON; PAINTED ABOUT 1800. 



PAINTING 313 

tion, and the Yamato Tosa is the most national in style and 
motive, but the least forcible. Of the later schools, the 
Korin is the most purely and boldly decorative ; the Shijo 
the most natural and graceful ; and the Ukiyo-ye the most 
original and versatile, but the least cultivated. The four 
latter, with the Toba-ye caricatures, represent the native, 
the first four the " classical " phases of the art. European 
pictorial art, hitherto imperfectly understood, has exercised 
little appreciable influence over that of Japan, except in some 
of the popular book illustrations, and a few very modern 
pictures, and has, so far, weakened the national characteris- 
tics of the work without advancing its scientific ideal. 

The typical Japanese artist is a caligraphist and impres- 
sionist. As an impressionist he fairly claims the right to 
represent no more of his subject than he considers sufficient 
to convey his meaning, and seeks rather to awaken ideas 
by suggestion than to explain them by elaboration of de- 
tail ; but he does not care to admit that all he elects to re- 
produce should be true, or at any rate free from obvious 
falsity. Those who are most inclined to admit his main 
principle would find it hard to offer an excuse for placing a 
front view of the eye upon a profile, for caricaturing the 
muscles of an athlete by misplaced and misshapen slabs of 
flesh, for introducing the light of day into a night scene, or 
for wilfully ignoring the facts of chiaroscuro in the optical 
phenomena of perspective ; but in all these vagaries and 
many others the painter indulges himself hardily and habit- 
ually. His work is not a lie, for he does not deceive him- 



314 JAPAN 

self or others ; but it is weak in accepting an inefficient 
sham when the reality is within his reach. He sacrifices 
the substance of nature for its hazy and distorted reflection 
in the mirror of conventionality, and is tempted to veil by 
a fatal facility of brush the defects of interpretation which 
a more complete " finish " would only throw into disagree- 
able prominence. 

Regarding the art from a caligraphic standpoint, we 
must grant that the leaders of the schools of the Fifteenth 
and Sixteenth Centuries, and some of their predecessors, 
attained the extreme limits of excellence ; yet we must 
recognize at the same time that they were neither the 
originators nor the sole representatives of their style. As 
art caligraphists, they were only the pupils of the Chinese 
masters of the T'ang, Sung, and Yuen dynasties, and could 
not — in fact did not — claim to have surpassed their in- 
structors ; but even were they without precursors or rivals 
in this direction, the comparative value of a caligraphic 
basis for pictorial art remains open to discussion. The 
Chinese or Japanese painter can undoubtedly stamp his 
work with an unmistakable impress of mental culture and 
artistic feeling, but he can give expression to all this as 
clearly — for his countrymen at least — in a line of writing 
as in a portrait of a Buddhist god. We may, perhaps, ac- 
cept writing, especially that of China, as a branch of art; 
but the Japanese teaching in the past tended to reduce 
painting to the contracted dimensions of a branch of calig- 
raphy. 



PAINTING 315 

On the other hand, the Japanese painter has endowments 
which leave a heavy balance in his favour — a large share of 
that quality in art which, for want of a better name, may 
be called " power " ; a perfect appreciation of harmony in 
colour; an instinctive sense of effectiveness and propriety 
in composition ; unequalled command of pencil ; a ready 
and fertile invention ; and, when he is disposed to exercise 
it, a keen and intelligent gift of observation. 

This ancient phase of pictorial art is destined to pass 
away, and already its images, overlapped by those of a new 
ideal, betray all the confusion of the change in a dissolving 
view; but it will leave indelible traces on that which is to 
replace it, and it must always possess a powerful attraction 
for the student, not only as matter for an important and 
interesting section of art history, but as a record of the 
mental, moral and social characteristics of the people and 
castes by whom it was nourished and in some degree 
created. 



POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 

AUGUSTUS W, FRANKS 

JAPANESE writers refer the origin of the making of 
pottery to a remote period, anterior to b. c. 600, their 
date for the commencement of real history in Japan. 
Vases are found in ancient tombs, and from their some- 
times containing claw-like ornaments in hard stone, they 
are known as magatama tsuho^ or " precious jewel vases." 
They are probably the remains of a race which preceded 
the existing Japanese, though perhaps to a certain extent 
merged in it — a race connected with the Ainos, and who 
are known to have occupied, even in historic times, the 
northern part of the main island. The pottery is coarsely 
made, and resembles somewhat the early pottery of Europe. 
Some of the specimens, however, have a considerable affin- 
ity to vessels discovered in North America, the exact age 
of which is not settled. 

During the first two centuries of our era Korean potters 
came to Japan, and no doubt introduced some improve- 
ments ; one of the greatest, however, was due to native 
talent, being the introduction of the potters' wheel by 
Giyogi, a native of the province of Idzumi. In the early 
part of the reign of the Emperor Suinin, b. c. 27, the 
followers of the Korean prince, Amano Hiboko, settled at 

316 



POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 317 

Hasama, province of Omi, where they manufactured a 
kind of pottery somewhat harder than that previously 
made. After the successful invasion of Korea by the 
Japanese Empress Jingo, in a. d. 200, several Koreans 
settled in Japan, and made pottery. In 463, some 
Japanese princes introduced from Petsi a number of 
colonists, among whom were some potters ; but these were 
stated to have belonged to a Chinese corporation established 
in Korea. Koreans were likewise concerned in establish- 
ing the factory at Karatsu (Hizen) at the end of the 
Seventh Century, the Raku fabric at Kioto, about 1550, 
another at Seto about 1590, and, somewhat later, one at 
Hagi. The principal fabric, however, which they had to 
do with is the well-known one of Satsuma, where the kilns 
were built on Korean models, and the potters formed a 
class apart, not being allowed to marry out of their own 
community. Excepting, however, the Satsuma ware, the 
Koreans do not appear to have introduced any pottery of 
remarkable excellence. 

The Chinese influence produced more important results. 
In 1223, Kato Shirozayemon, better known as Toshiro, 
returned from China, where he had been to study the art 
of making pottery. He settled at Seto (Owari) and made 
a glazed stoneware, employing for the earlier specimens 
Chinese clay. 

For the manufacture of porcelain the Japanese are also 
indebted to the Chinese, though this was not introduced 
till the Sixteenth Century. In 15 13, Gorodayu Shonsui 



3i8 JAPAN 

of Ise returned from China and settled in the province of 
Hizen. The porcelain which he made was chiefly on the 
Chinese models, and only ornamented with blue painting. 
The various porcelain factories of Hizen seem to have 
been established on the principle introduced by him. In 
1799, there were no less than eighteen factories in the 
neighbourhood of Imari in that province. Two of them, 
Okawaji and Mikawaji, did not make their wares for sale, 
being the private factories of the princes of Saga and 
Hirato respectively. Of the factories producing porcelain 
for sale, it is stated that only one decorated its wares with 
colours and gilding, and from it must have proceeded the 
great quantity of porcelain known to us under the name 
of " Old Japan." This was first made in 1641 for ex- 
portation to China, probably to supply the Portuguese 
market at Macao, and afterwards exported by the Dutch 
to all parts of Europe. It would be very interesting to 
know whence was derived the peculiar style of decoration, 
which is evidently not borrowed from the Chinese. The 
sets of vases would be useless in a Japanese house, there 
being no place on which they could be stood ; and their 
rarity in that country is shown by their being seldom now 
received, and by the high prices which are asked for them. 
We have spoken of the pottery of Seto, but its 
porcelain has considerable merit, and though the factory 
is of more recent origin than those of Hizen, it has oddly 
enough given its name to porcelain, which is often known 
in Japan as Setomono^ or Seto ware. 



POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 319 

The Kutani factory was founded in the Seventeenth 
Century by Tamura Gonzayemon, and was improved by 
Goto Saijiro, who had studied porcelain-making in Hizen. 
Its earlier productions are a coarse kind of porcelain, 
decorated in strong colours ; but, later, this gave way to 
the well-known red decoration, familiar to us under the 
name of Kaga, chiefly used on a fine yellow pottery. 

The Satsuma ware, so much esteemed by European col- 
lectors, was made at first in small quantities for the use of 
the Prince of Satsuma and his friends. The decoration in 
colours was not introduced till the end of the last century. 
Most of the specimens sold as old Satsuma have been 
made at Ota and Awata in recent times. 

The various wares made at Kioto, by Ninsei and his 
followers, Kenzan and others, are remarkable for their 
quaint and fanciful forms, owing, no doubt, to their being 
made at the city in which the Mikado resided, and for the 
use of his courtiers. 

The ceramic wares of Japan exhibit great diff^erences in 
their composition, texture and appearance, but may be 
roughly classed under three principal heads : (i) common 
pottery and stoneware, generally ornamented simply by 
scoring and glazing the surface ; (2) a cream-coloured 
faience, with a glaze, often crackled, and delicately painted 
in colours ; (3) hard porcelain. To the first of these 
classes belong the wares of Bizen, old Seto, Shigaraki, and 
other small fabrics, including the Raku wares. 

The principal factories of the second class are Awata, 



320 JAPAN 

Satsuma, and the recent imitations of the latter at Ota and 
elsewhere. 

Among the porcelain the coarsest is that made at 
Kutani, but the most celebrated fabrics are in the province 
of Hizen, at Seto in Owari, and Kiyomidzu near Kioto. 

We have already mentioned the vases used in the tea- 
ceremony : the furnace, water-vessel, jar to hold the pow- 
dered tea, pan for ashes, and tea-bowl (see page 285). We 
next come to vessels employed in incense-burning, which, 
as we have seen, forms part of the tea-ceremony, but 
was likewise a favourite pastime among the Japanese 
nobles of old times. The game consisted in guessing the 
name of the perfume which was being burnt, with the 
usual forfeits, etc. We find here incense boxes {kogo) of 
the most varied forms, generally small in size. The in- 
cense-burner (^koro) varies also considerably, sometimes 
taking the forms of men, animals, or birds. The lower 
part of the vessel was filled with a fine white ash, on which 
a piece of lighted charcoal was placed, and again upon this 
the incense. This arrangement will account for few of 
the incense-burners showing any marks of fire on the lower 
part, though plentiful traces of smoke may be observed on 
their lids and elsewhere. 

The only vessel connected with tobacco-smoking which 
is made in pottery is the fire-holder, from which the smoker 
lights his pipe. The vessel is generally of small size, and 
cylindrical in form, to fit into the lacquer smoking-box in 
which the Japanese keep all their apparatus for smoking. 



POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 321 

For keeping the hands warm a small earthenware brazier 
{shiu-ro) was used, somewhat pear-shaped in form, with an 
opening on one side. This vessel is sometimes very 
quaintly shaped. 

The objects for use at the writing-table consist of small 
ornamental screens, used also as paper-weights, vases for 
washing the brushes or pencils used in writing, vases for 
holding them, and small closed vessels for supplying water 
to the inkstand. These are very various in form, but all 
have a diminutive spout to allow the water to issue, drop 
by drop, and a small hole on which to place the finger to 
regulate the flow. 

The vases for sake drinking are chiefly bottles, either 
square, round, or polygonal, and jugs with spouts some- 
thing like kettles, or tea-pots. The sake is generally drunk 
out of small porcelain cups, sometimes graduated in size. 

The tea-pots (dohin) are generally of two forms — one 
like the ordinary European vessel, the other (kiu-su) with a 
hollow handle at right angles to the spout. The latter was 
first introduced in the Fifteenth Century. The cups are 
of the ordinary form, but without handles ; a saucer, when 
there is one, serves only as a stand for the cup. At their 
meals plates and dishes are used, but chiefly of the saucer 
shape, the flat edge being made only to suit European 
habits. Small bowls are used for eating rice, an invariable 
feature of a Japanese meal, but the rice is served in a large 
wooden or lacquer bowl. Bowls to contain cake may be 
found of varied and elegant forms. Small saucers are used 



322 JAPAN 

to hold comfits. Coarse pottery is naturally employed for 
all kinds of kitchen uses, gardening and agriculture, among 
others for steeping rice and other grains. 

In ornamental pieces we find a number of figures, both 
of men and animals. The flower-vases form a large class. 
As in China so in Japan, the people have a great admi- 
ration for flowers. Their nosegays, however, are very 
different from ours — a picturesque disposition of a piece 
of old fir-tree and one or two other plants being the end to 
be attained. It is scarcely necessary to describe the ordi- 
nary flower-vases (h ana-ike) ; but one class, the hanging 
flower-vases attached to the beam of the room, deserve 
notice from their quaint and fantastic character. The 
most varied forms are sought for — a bunch of wistaria 
(fuji), an old pine cone, a section of bamboo, a gourd, a 
firefly, a swallow beating as it were against the wall, are 
designs that may be found in these vases. It is a question 
whether what we are pleased to call decorative vases be- 
long to the proper native Japanese taste ; they are either 
copies of Chinese originals or made for the European mar- 
ket. Such objects would be quite out of place in a Jap- 
anese interior. Moreover, pairs of vases would be quite 
contrary to Japanese fancy, which abhors symmetry. 

On Chinese porcelain the marks chiefly consist of a date, 
the names of the halls at which it was made, inscriptions 
commending the specimens, or ornamental devices, none of 
which throw any light on the locality of the manufacture. 
The Japanese marks are far more instructive, Dates in^ 



POTTERY AND PORCELAIN 323 

deed are less frequent than with the Chinese, but we occa- 
sionally find the Japanese nengo^ which like the Chinese 
nien-hao^ is an arbitrary name given to the reign, or a por- 
tion of the reign, of an emperor. We frequently find the 
name of places at which the wares were made, or some- 
times the names by which they are known, for instance, 
Asahi, Minato, etc. The most common mark, however, 
on Japanese wares, is the name of the potter. 



SCULPTURE AND CARVING 

MARCUS B. HUISH 

SCULPTURE in Japan originated in the service of 
religion, and the only examples of any size which 
come under our notice in this country, are those 
which partake of this character. Principal among these 
are shrines and figures of deities. Few date back beyond 
the Sixteenth Century. 

The images of deities are for the most part of the 
Seventeenth Century, as in 1614, an edict was issued by 
Hidetada that every house should contain one, and this 
must have given a considerable impetus to their creation, 
for the mere force of example would probably induce the 
majority of believers to discard their old idol for a new one. 
Many of the shrine cases, too, in which they are enclosed 
testify by their metal ornamentation to the hands of the 
Gotos, living at that time, having been employed upon 
them. 

This compulsory edict may have been indirectly the 
cause of the netsuke taking its present shape. In this wise : 
it was the introduction of tobacco, some time in the Six- 
teenth Century, which called it into existence. The edict 
shortly afterwards also created a numerous body of crafts- 

324 



SCULPTURE AND CARVING 325 

men, whose business it was to furnish every family with a 
carving in miniature of a deified figure. 

There is no section of Japanese Art which succeeds in 
attracting the attention of everybody who is brought into 
contact with it, so much as that which is comprised under 
the heading of netsuke carvings. Enthusiasts have gone so 
far as to compare them to the Tanagra figures of Greek 
origin. Until very recently a netsuke was a term which 
included, in the minds of all foreigners, every carving be- 
low a certain size, and it is only a comparatively small class 
who now know the contrary. In reality, a netsuke is a 
toggle affixed by a cord to the tobacco pouch, or the pipe 
or the inro^ to prevent it from slipping through the sash or 
waistband. In early times it probably had little, if any, 
ornamentation, but gradually, as it was one of the few 
articles upon a Japanese's dress which admitted of it, orna- 
mentation was added. But so long as it was used as a 
toggle it never lost its original idea, or its form ; so that 
whenever we see a netsuke without compactness, or with 
extraneous excrescences which would catch the folds of the 
dress, or break off, it may be taken for certain that it is of 
modern date and has been made for the outside market. 

Netsukes are made of wood, or lacquered wood, elephant 
or walrus ivory, boars' tusks or teeth of animals, vegetable 
ivory, horns of stags, antelopes, and oxen (the latter some- 
times compressed), fishbone, walnut or other shells, jade, 

^ Medicine-case or seal-box, a nest of small compartments, suspended 
from the girdle of the Samurai, 



326 JAPAN 

metal, porcelain, amber, onyx, coral and crystal. The 
oldest are those of wood ; ivory was only imported in any 
quantity in the Eighteenth Century, and it is singular that 
whilst those made from this material are almost always in- 
ferior to those carved from wood, they hold the pride of 
place in the estimation of the majority of collectors. The 
wood used, which is generally the core of the cherry-tree 
is softer, more subtle, and less liable to splinter than ivory, 
and whereas the latter usually fails with age, the wood 
hardens and acquires a patina of a rich warm hue. Ivories 
are subjected to soaking in coffee and all sorts of mixtures 
to make them assume an antique appearance. 

The ancient city of Nara, probably owing to its being a 
place replete with temples, was for centuries celebrated for 
its wood-carvers, and it was here that many of the most 
notable netsuke-mskers lived. Osaka was also the head- 
quarters of a large number, as was Kioto. 

Those makers whose works are most sought after are, 
Shiuzan, Miwa, Ikkan, Masanao, Tomotada, Tadatoshi, 
Deme-Uman and Deme-Joman, Minko, Tomochika, 
Kokei. Shiuzan lived at Nara towards the close of the 
Seventeenth Century. Authentic examples of his work are 
very rare, and very few, if any, of those which bear his 
name are genuine. The signature of Shiuzan is affixed to 
a number of brightly coloured figurines which do not pre- 
tend to be of ancient date, and also to others from which 
time has almost erased the traces of colouring in a style 
which was affected by the master, 




CARVED IVORY GROUP, BY MEI-GIOKU BUTSU, REPRESENTING THE 
FAMOUS ARCHER TAMETOMO AND HIS SWORD-BEARER. 



SCULPTURE AND CARVING 327 

The Miwa family came from Yedo. The netsukes of the 
first maker of this name are held in high esteem and are of 
great rarity, and it is probably also the case with his netsukes 
that few of those which pass current as his are actually so. 
M. Gonse can only count with certainty six in Paris. He 
considers that it is impossible to compress into the space 
more grandeur of style and knowledge of drawing than is 
to be found in the works of this master. It is said that 
Miwa sometimes coloured his netsukes^ but of this there is 
little evidence ; his subjects were invariably figures. 

There is a class of ivory netsukes about which little is 
known, even by such experts as Mr. Gilbertson. I refer 
to the tall archaic stiff oddly-dressed figures from three to six 
inches high, invariably of ivory, much worn both as to the 
noses and any projecting surfaces. None of the old and 
very few of the modern ones are signed. The former very 
often represent the figure of a Sennin ^ with a toad on his 
shoulder or head, or else a figure clad in what I believe to 
be Dutch costume. They have evidently served for some- 
thing heavier than an inro or pouch, possibly a metal pipe. 
Mr. Gilbertson considers that from their large size and the 
material employed they were neither cheap nor common in 
Japan. They frequently appear in miscellaneous lots, and 
every collection should contain a representative specimen. 

There are certain names which are identified with the 
portrayal of animals, and many of them have produced 
works which leave nothing to be desired. Amongst theni 

1 Supernatural being. 



328 JAPAN 

Ikkan was noted for his rats, Masanao for fowls and rats, 
Masatami for his rabbits, Tomotada for his oxen, Tadatoshi 
for snails, and Tametaka for wild boars. Sokwa Hei-shiro 
worked at flowers and grasses in baskets. 

Those who excelled in figures were Minkoku, Sensai 
and Masanao, and in groups Nobuyuki. As Mr. Ander- 
son has so well expressed : " The designs of the netsuke- 
carvers embrace the whole range of Japanese motives, and 
the artist tells his story with the utmost lucidity. Nothing 
is safe from his humour except, perhaps, the official powers 
that be, of whom the Japanese citizen has a salutary dread. 
Religion, history, folk-lore, novels, incidents of daily life, 
all provide material for his tools, and his subjects are mostly 
treated in a comic or even flippant vein. The pious 
Dharma, or Daruma, aroused from his nine years' motion- 
less contemplation by the attentions of an obtrusive rat 
who ventures to nibble the saintly ear, is made to assume 
an expression suggestive of the strongest equivalent for 
swearing of which we may suppose a good Buddhist to be 
capable. The Thunder God is seen extracting the storm- 
cloud from the basket that gives it stowage room in 
idle days of sunshine. An inquisitive bird has unwarily in- 
serted his long beak between the valves of a giant clam, 
whose gaping shell had invited the incautious search after 
the unknown, and now, with straining thighs and flapping 
wings, struggles vainly to regain his liberty. An expectant 
domestic party surround a fish-kettle, while the head of the 
family triumphantly extracts a carp of tempting proportions. 



SCULPTURE AND CARVING 329 

but the averted heads, disgusted faces, and finger-tweaked 
noses of the hungry group, eloquently proclaim the central 
idea of Buddhism — the impermanency of all things and the 
vanity of human u^ishes. Such examples might be multi- 
plied without end." 

It is this variety of subject which gives so great an in- 
terest to the collection of these bibelots^ and which usually 
leads to their selection more for the incident they illustrate 
than for the master who made them. 

The netsuke-makers also occupied themselves with the 
manufacture of toys for the amusement apparently of the 
Japanese elder folk. These consisted of tiny figures {hina) 
carved in wood, dressed in brocade, and with a rounded 
bottom weighted with lead which necessitated their retain- 
ing their equilibrium. 

There are few people who have examined even casually 
any collection of Japanese wares, be it only in a curio- 
dealer's window, but must have been struck by the fre- 
quent introduction of masks into Japanese Art. Either it 
is the original masks themselves, or copies of them, or some 
representation wherein personages old and young are fig- 
ured as wearing them. 

The usage of the mask in the theatre is another of the 
many features which connect Japan with Greece. The 
custom arose from the desire to accentuate either the tragic 
or the comic expression. In Japan, as M. Gonse shows 
{IJ Art yaponais)^ they can be traced back as far as the 
Ninth Century, and he gives an illustration of one which 



330 JAPAN 

dates from the Twelfth. They were first used for per- 
formances called Kagura, which were of a semi-religious 
character, but in later centuries for theatrical and court 
usages also, the performances or dances taking the names 
of Bu-gaku and No. They have fallen into desuetude 
since the Seventeenth Century. 



LACQUER 

ERNEST HART 

IT has been said that art works in lacquer are the most 
perfect objects which ever issued from the hand of 
man. At the very least they are the most delicate. 
Their fabrication has been for long centuries, and still is, 
the glory of the Japanese. It is a national industry which 
belongs exclusively to them, and for which they owe noth- 
ing to any one. The singularity of the processes, the finish 
of the handiwork, the beauty and precious nature of the 
material, make it a thing apart in the artistic manifestations 
of the Far East. Among artists and connoisseurs, the lacs 
of old Japan enjoy universal celebrity ; they are the most 
delicate treasures which adorn the cabinets and enchant 
the eye of the collector. No one who is at all familiar 
with the study of the lacs of old Japan, or with the finest 
productions of modern artists of the last ten years, will be 
inclined to gainsay this eulogistic dictum. Its first uses 
were those of everyday utility. According to the Japanese 
annals, there lived in the reign of the Emperor Koan, who 
came to the throne in 392 b. c, a certain Sammi, Mitsumi- 
no Sukune, who founded a school of lacquer artists 
called Nurihe^ or Urushihe. At this time, however, and 
for long after, the lac products do not appear to have had 



332 JAPAN 

an ornamental character, and the introduction of colour 
was unknown. According to Ma Twan-Lin, a Chinese 
authority, who wrote in the Thirteenth Century a valuable 
book on the ethnography of races foreign to China, and 
who quotes the reports of an embassy sent in the Sixth 
Century from Japan to China, the Japanese of that day 
were a people backward in art ; but, he specially notices, 
they wore jacket-petticoats as their garments, and carried 
bows with bone-pointed arrows, and cuirasses of lacquered 
leather. Incidentally he mentions that they had then no 
written alphabet, but engraved certain marks on wood, and 
used knotted cords for the like purpose. It was at this 
period that they began to study the religious system of 
China, and to learn from her various literary and artistic 
methods. In lacquer, however, the Japanese had nothing 
to learn from the Chinese ; on the contrary, we read in the 
annals of Goshiro that presents of lac, which were sent 
from Japan to China by the Emperor Hanozono, by the 
hands of the priest Atsu, in the year 1308, were so much 
admired that a party of Chinese were sent to Japan, there 
to study lacquer. Meantime great progress had been made. 
During all the earlier periods of Japanese history lacquer 
was specially appreciated for its durability and its applica- 
bility to the purposes of daily use. In the temple of 
Todaiji at Nara, lacquer boxes containing the manuscript 
prayer-books are preserved, which are alleged to date from 
the Third Century. In the year 380 the Sadaijin Shihei 
published a book called Engishiki^ in which he inciden- 



LACQUER 333 

tally mentions red lacs and gold lacs, which would indicate 
an advanced stage in this industry. Eighty years later an 
official, named Minamoto-no Juin, in a work entitled 
Utsubo Monogatari^ speaks not only of gold lac, but of 
the gold-powdered lacs, of which I shall have to say more 
presently, known to the Japanese as Nashiji^ or yellow 
pear-skin lacs. He gives no names, nor does he indicate 
the seat of production ; but he states that these lacs were 
manufactured by renowned artisans. In the famous 
book, Genji Monogatari^ by the celebrated female writer, 
Murasaki Shikibu, she speaks of a new kind of lac en- 
crusted with mother-of-pearl, the kind of lac known as 
Raden, showing that already, in her time, there was con- 
siderable wealth and variety in the decoration of lac. We 
read that, in the Seventh Century, the Emperor Kotoku, who 
came to the throne in the year 645, took a keen interest in 
the art of lacquer, and established a special department for 
its development, under which were placed the chief artists 
of repute at that time ; the production of inferior makes of 
lac being at the same time prohibited by official order. In- 
cidentally it is mentioned, and may be noted as an example 
of the then use of lacquer, that it was ordered at this time 
that coffins should be sealed at the angles with a threefold 
coat of lacquer, to give them strength and durability. 
Cabinets of red lacquer, that is lacquer mixed with ver- 
milion, are specially mentioned as having been manufac- 
tured to the order of the Emperor Temmu, who came to 
the throne in the year 673 a. d. 



334 JAPAN 

The oldest existing lac-work is said to be a sword of the 
Emperor Shomu 724 a. d., which is described in a letter 
addressed by the Empress Koken to the conservators of 
the Todaiji temple in the eighth year of Tempio (736). 
The scabbard of this sword is of black lac, with a flower 
design worked in gold dust, and again covered with layers 
of polished black lac. In the same temple was preserved 
the sword of Hiomon, with similar designs of flowers, 
grasses and animals. 

In the thirteenth year of Enriaku (794), the Emperor 
Kammu built a palace in Kioto, and removed the capital 
from Nara to Kioto. Owing to the long-continued peace 
after this event the people began to give more attention to 
fine art, and swords with scabbards highly decorated came 
into general use. 

In the second year of Kasho (849), among the presents 
given to the Emperor Nimmio, on the occasion of his fortieth 
birthday, there was much valuable black lac called Hyomon- 
no-Zushi^ after the design of Hyomon. Hyomon is now 
known as the art of polishing lac with a mirror-like 
smoothness of surface, after the encrusted designs of gold 
and silver have been put on the lower layers. 

During the period Tenriaku (947-957), the fashion of 
decoration of apartments of the nobles with lacs was 
introduced. 

In the period of Kwanna (985 to 986), a new style of 
Makiye^ especially ordered by the Emperor, was introduced, 
and called Okiguchi. This consisted in binding the 




FOUR BOXES OF LACQUER. 



LACQUER 335 

edges of the lacquer articles either with silver, tin, or 
lead. 

In the second year of Eiyen (988), a priestly artist, 
Chonen, was sent to the Chinese Court to present gifts of 
lacquer of his own work to the Emperor of China. The 
work was of a very high order. 

At the time of the Emperor, Horikawa (1087), a temple 
called Chusonji was built in the province of Mutsu, and 
was highly decorated with gold-powdered lac and encrusta- 
tions of mother-of-pearl. This temple is even now extant 
and in good condition. The province of Mutsu is now 
known under the name of the province of Rikuzen. 

In the era of the Emperor Konoe (1142), the whole 
furniture of the Palace of the Emperor was made in a new 
style of lac, nashiji nuri. This was richly encrusted with 
gold, mother-of-pearl, and various coloured stones, called 
the stones of five colours, specimens of which are pre- 
served now in the collections of a nobleman, Doi. 

During the period of the Emperor Takakura (1169), the 
new fashion of decorating the kuruma^ or carriages of 
nobles, with hyomon bun lac, was introduced. These car- 
riages were, therefore, called Hyomon-no Kuruma. 

On the fiftieth birthday of the Emperor Horikawa 
(1129), two celebrated artists of that time, Norisuye and 
Kiohara no Sadayasu were invited to the imperial ban- 
quet. This was recognized by the public to be a great 
honour. 

From this date the most distinguished of many lacquer 



336 JAPAN 

artists might be named — Shosakan Kino Sukemasa, Naka- 
hara Suyetsune, Kiohara Sadamitsu, etc. 

The productions of lac during the era of the Emperor 
Gotoba (1186), are well preserved in the temple of Hatchi- 
man at Kamakura, where also are seen the sword, quiver, 
and other objects belonging to Yoritomo. The decoration 
of much of this lacquer was either with birds or chrysanthe- 
mums, encrusted with mother-of-pearl. 

In the fourth year of Showa (1315), the temple of 
Hiyoshi, in the province of Omi, was built, and decorated 
in lac by the following distinguished artists — Kiyomitsu, 
Morichika, Moriuji, Yoshinaga, Tomoshige, Tomonaga, 
Kunitomo, Morihiro. 

At the time of the Emperor Go Hanazono (1429), many 
students from China came to study lacquer work in Japan. 

In the period Kokoku (i 339-1 345), experts arose 
who classified lac according to the periods of its produc- 
tion. About this date also a change was introduced in the 
schools of design. Up to this date the designs had been 
chiefly either birds or flowers ; but now there were intro- 
duced landscape designs, temples, and human figures. The 
most distinguished artist of this period was Igarashi. 

During the period Kwanei (i 624-1644), a new temple 
was built, Zojoji, in Yedo, now called Tokio, by the Governor 
or Prime Minister of the Tokugawa Shogun lyemitsu. In 
this temple the pagoda, decorated with ma hye {height ten 
feet, breadth six or seven feet, and of octagonal form), was 
considered by the public as the masterpiece of the age. 



, LACQUER 337 

Among the most flourishing artists of the age were Moto- 
bumi, Koma Kiuhaku, Kajikawa Kiujiro, of Yedo; and 
Yamamoto Shunsho, of Kioto. The execution of lacquer 
work in the period Genroku (1688-1704), was considered 
to approach the highest possible perfection. The produc- 
tion of this age was specially called Jidai makiye. 

On the occasion of the International Exhibition in 
Vienna (1873), the Japanese Government sent out a num- 
ber of articles for exhibition, among which was a kendai 
(bookstand used by Daimyo), made in the Genroku period, 
which was considered a most perfect work. After the 
exhibition the French mail steamer, loaded with all the 
articles exhibited by the Japanese Government, sank 
on its way to Japan, near Cape Idzu. After a lapse of 
eighteen months the articles were brought up from the sea. 
On examination the lac proved to be unchanged in colour, 
showing the most durable and skilful work of that period. 

In the sixth year of Eisho (1051) the Hohodo or 
Phoenix Hall of the temple Byodo-in, was built in the 
town of Uji, in the province of Yamashiro, and the whole 
of the ceiling was encrusted with mother-of-pearl lacquer. 
This is preserved at the present time, and is highly valued 
as an artistic monument. Another temple, called Chusonji, 
in the village of Hirardzumi, in the province of Mutsu, 
which is now the province of Rikuzen, was built during 
the era of the Emperor Horikawa (1087), which is also 
preserved in good condition at the present time, and con- 
sidered to be a good specimen of temple decoration with 



338 JAPAN 

the powdered gold lac Nashiji^ and mother-of-pearl 
encrustation. 

In the period Keicho (1596-16 14) Inro^ decorated with 
lacquer and encrusted with Raden came into vogue. 
Kioto, Osaka, Yedo and Nagasaki produced the most 
artistic work of this character. 

Chinkin-bori^ or Chinkin lacquer is produced by incising 
the black lacquer in various patterns, and then coating the 
incised surface with gold powder. Its origin is unknown. 
Some say it was introduced from China, but this is un- 
certain. 

During the period Kioho (17 16-1736), Nagasaki was 
well known for the production of Chinkin^ and a doctor 
called Ninomiya, who lived in Yedo during the period 
Kwansei (1789-1801), was especially skilled in this art. 
It is stated that he used the teeth of mice instead of the 
ordinary graver for producing very delicate incised work. 
His tools and materials are still preserved. Among his 
productions is a peacock standing on a rock, which is con- 
sidered one of his greatest works. The art is now 
practised in the island of Wajima, in the province of 
Noto. 

Tsuishu was first introduced by the lacquer artist 
Monyiu, who lived in Kioto during the reign of the Em- 
peror Go-Tsuchi-Mikado (1465). It was an imitation of 
Chinese work. It is stated in the Kogeishiro that he 
introduced, in addition to the Chinese methods, the 
practice of coating the objects to be decorated with layers 



LACQUER 339 

of different coloured lacs, chiefly red, green, and black, and 
carving them deeply in oblique lines, so as to show the 
different layers of lac of which the whole is made up. 
This is known as Guri Lac^ and when the carving is very 
shallow it is called Hashika-bori. 

Tsuishu is still produced in Kioto, Nagasaki and Yedo. 

Vermilion-lacquered dinner sets were considered more 
aristocratic and ceremonious than black-lacquered ones, and 
were used for public banquets, etc. This custom still pre- 
vails at the present time to a great extent. Black-lacquered 
articles were, however, also used on public occasions, but 
chiefly when the guests were inferior in rank to the host. 

In 1545, the celebrated general called Takeda Shingen, 
during his campaign against the celebrated General Uyesugi 
Kenshin, caused those soldiers who proved brave in the 
field to dine off red-lacquered sets, and those who were 
not brave off black-lacquered ones, in order to encourage 
the courageous. 

When, in 1175, the ex-Emperor Goshirakawa held a 
banquet on the occasion of his Jubilee, the celebrated 
lacquer artists of Kioto, among whom were Sadayasu and 
Norisuye, had the distinction of being invited to the 
banquet. This was considered at that time a great honour 
for an artist, and it can therefore be imagined that the art 
was recognized as a very important and refined one, and 
that it attracted great attention at that time. 

When Yoritomo established his Government at Kama- 
kura, about 700 years ago, that town became very populous 



340 JAPAN 

and important, being second only to Kioto ; and con- 
sequently a great many lacquer artists went to settle there. 
Among the artists there was one who invented the process 
of carving the ground of articles, and covering it with 
coloured lac 5 this was termed Kamakura-bori^ or Kama- 
kura carving. An artist of Nagoya, called Tosuke, in- 
vented a process of covering china with gold-lacquered 
pictures, and this kind of work was called after his name. 
When in 1858 the Shogun, Tokugawa lyesada, signed a 
treaty with several countries in Europe, and established 
commerce with European nations, European ideas and 
methods were adopted in making lac, and such things as 
tables and chairs were made for the first time. 

Since the Meiji era, that is since the Restoration, the 
Government has greatly encouraged the art. 

At the present time Yamato, Ise, Mikawa, Kai, Hitachi, 
Hida, Shinano, Kotsuke, Shimotsuke, Iwashiro, Rikuzen, 
Uzen, Tango, Tajima, Inaba, Kii are the provinces where 
the lacquer trees are specially cultivated ; and Tokio, 
Kioto, Osaka, Noto, Shimotsuke, Rikuzen, Rikuchu, 
Iwaki, Iwashiro, Mutsu, Ugo, Hitachi, Suruga, Owari, 
Omi, Ise, Yamato, Idzumi, Wakasa, Tajima, Etchu, Kaga, 
Sanuki, Hizen, Kii are the cities and provinces where the 
lacquer industry is most celebrated. 

Generally, lacquered articles are called after the process 
followed, or after the name of the place where they are 
made, or after the name of the artist. 



LITERATURE 

W, G. ASTON 

THE same spirit which pervades other classical lit- 
eratures animates that of Japan, viz., a refined 
common sense and good taste, which rejects all 
extravagance, and aims rather at the fit expression of what 
is felt and known by all, than at startling, horrifying, or in- 
structing the reader. 

A literature of this kind does not spring up all at once 
out of nothing. Its existence implies that some necessary 
conditions have been previously fulfilled. A certain degree 
of political stability is a sine qua non^ as well as some prog- 
ress in the arts and in material civilization, together with 
a sufficient previous literary culture, based on the study 
of native or foreign models. Not until these conditions 
have been for some time realized, is it possible to have a 
classical literature. Let me enumerate briefly the principal 
events which prepared the way in Japan, for this develop- 
ment. 

The next important was the introduction, early in the 
Fifth Century, of a knowledge of the Chinese character 
and of the study of Chinese literature. At first the Jap- 
anese did not attempt to write their own language. Their 

341 



342 JAPAN 

earliest literary experiments were in Chinese. It was not 
until the Eighth Century that they began to compose books 
in the native tongue. Buddhism was introduced soon after 
writing, but it did not become generally practised until the 
Seventh Century. Its influence is traceable in the humane 
and gentle character of the classical literature. 

The principal political event which paved the way for a 
more general literary culture was the establishment of the 
Mikado's capital at Nara towards the end of the Seventh 
Century. Previous to this time, every Mikado had built a 
new palace and founded himself a capital in a fresh locality 
— a custom which was plainly a serious obstacle to progress 
of any kind. During the Eighth Century, however, the 
authority of the sovereign was extended so as to embrace a 
far larger portion of the nation, wealth increased, and great 
progress in the useful and fine arts followed. Architecture 
in particular, made rapid advances. 

The impulse which urged the Japanese nation at this 
period towards a higher civilization came from abroad. 
The political ideas embodied in the Imperial theory, which 
has lasted to this day, came from China. The same is 
true of their literature. That it owed much to China is 
indisputable. Their obligations to the older classical Chi- 
nese literature are well known, and it seems probable that 
more is due to the study of the writings of the Tang Dy- 
nasty than has yet been acknowledged. One author of 
this period, a poet named Hakuraku (Peh Kii-yeh 772- 
846), we know to have been a favourite with the Japanese 



LITERATURE 343 

in the Tenth Century. But there is comparatively little 
outward appearance of Chinese influences. The Chinese 
words in the language at this time were few, and allusions 
to Chinese history and literature rare, in comparison with 
later times. Whatever was borrowed was passed through 
the alembic of the native genius, and came out transformed 
into something genuinely Japanese. 

The classical age of Japanese literature extends, roughly 
speaking, over a period of five hundred years, comprising 
the Eighth, Ninth, Tenth, Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries 
of our era. The first section of it (the Nara Period) begins 
with the establishment of the Mikado's Court on a more 
permanent basis at Nara, a beautiful spot in the province 
of Yamato. 

The Nara Period corresponds pretty closely to our 
Eighth Century. The prose of this earlier section of the 
classical period may be passed over without notice. It is 
not classical in character, nor considerable in point of 
quantity. It is for its poetry, which has been collected in 
the well-known anthology — the Manyoshiu — that the Nara 
age is famous. The Manyoshiu is an extensive work. It 
consists of several thousand pieces, most of which are in 
the metre known as Tanka^ or short poems, the remain- 
der being chiefly what are called Naga-uta^ or long 
poems. There are no epics, no drama, hardly any ballad 
or narrative poems, no political satires, and scarce anything 
didactic or religious. Nearly all are lyrical, such as 
elegies, courtly effusions, sententious or sentimental stanzas, 



344 JAPAN 

praise of wine or beauty. Little poems on the moon, 
flowers, the song of birds, the varying aspects of nature are 
very numerous, and testify to the gentle disposition and re- 
fined culture of the authors. 

One important characteristic of this epoch must not be 
forgotten. The women at this time shared in the mental 
culture of the stronger sex, and a large and important part 
of the classical literature of Japan is from their pens. 
Several poetesses appear in the pages of the Manyoshiu^ 
while in the prose literature of the Heian Period — the most 
perfect of its kind that Japan has produced — the two chief 
names are those of women. This is a very remarkable 
fact, more especially when we compare with it the other 
great period of Japanese literature, viz., that of the Toku- 
gawa Shogunate, which was written exclusively by men. 
The reason of this is to be sought in the different social 
position of women in the classical times of Japanese liter- 
ature from what it afterwards became under Chinese in- 
fluences. 

It may be noted as a favourable symptom of the newer 
development of Japanese literature since the Restoration 
of 1868, that the names of women are again beginning to 
appear as authors. 

The second section of the classical age of Japanese 
literature is that known in history as the Heian Period, 
viz., that when Heianjo (or Kioto) was the real centre of 
government of the country. It may be taken as lasting 
from A. D. 784, when Kioto was made the capital, until 




PANEL FROM A SCREEN, LACQUER, WITH FIGURE OF A COURT LADY 

AND POETESS OF THE ELEVENTH CENTURY, INCRUSTED 

IN IVORY; DESIGN BY YOSAI. 



LITERATURE 345 

1 1 85, when Yoritomo established the rule of the military 
caste at Kamakura. 

About the beginning of this period the phonetic script 
known as the Kana came into use. It greatly simplified 
the art of writing the Japanese language. The poetry of 
this time is contained in the Anthology known as the 
Kokinshiu^ which consists almost exclusively of short 
poems of thirty-one syllables to the neglect of Naga- 
uta. 

The next work of the Heian Period to be noticed is the 
Taketori Monogatari. It is the first specimen of a kind of 
literature which has ever since been a great favourite in 
Japan, viz., the fairy tale, or, to be more accurate, the 
M'dhrchen. It is the story of a moon-maiden banished to 
earth for an offence against the lunar laws, and who gives 
much trouble to her earthly suitors, the Mikado himself in- 
cluded, before she returns to her celestial home in a flying 
chariot which was sent for her. It contains both senti- 
ment and humour, but the language has hardly yet attained 
to classical perfection. 

The he Monogatari is a work of a different stamp. As 
a specimen of early Japanese prose it is unrivalled, being 
systematic in its arrangement, and elegant, concise and 
perspicuous in style. It has, in short, all the qualities 
which we are accustomed to comprehend under the term 
" classical." The he Monogatari is a sort of novel. It 
relates the love adventures of a gay young courtier named 
Narihira, and his journey to the east of Japan, then a region 



34^ JAPAN 

full of terrors to the traveller from the capital. The Tanka 
contained in it are of more than average merit. 

The Heian Period produced a large number of other 
Monogatari of considerable merit and interest. Monogatari 
it should be explained, means " narrative." It is generally 
applied to fictitious narrative, but tovi^ards the end of this 
period one or two historical works appeared under this 
description. 

The great glories, however, of the Heian Period of Japa- 
nese literature are the Genji Monogatari and the Makura 
Zoshi^ both written by women and nearly at the same time, 
/. ^., about A. D. 1000. 

The author of the Genji was a lady of noble birth, 
known to us as Murasaki no Shikibu, who held an official 
position at the Court of the Mikado. As a picture of a 
long past state of society, there is nothing in the contem- 
porary European literature which can for a moment be 
compared with it. The language of the Genji is the ac- 
knowledged standard of the classical period. 

The second masterpiece of the Heian Period, the Makura 
Xoshi^ is a work of a different description. The author, 
Sei Shonagon, was a lady-in-waiting to the Empress, and 
came of a distinguished family, being directly descended 
from one of the Mikados. It is the first specimen of a 
kind of literature of which Japan has in recent times seen 
many examples, and which is represented in English by 
such works as the Autocrat of the Breakfast Table, Thack- 
eray's Roundabout Papers, etc. In the Makura Zoshi the 



LITERATURE 347 

author has recorded her impressions and observations during 
her life at Court. Humour is her forte as sentiment is that 
of Murasaki no Shikibu. 

Towards the end of the Heian Period, we meet with the 
first attempts (if we except the archaic Kojiki)^ at writing 
history in the Japanese language. The most important of 
these is the Teigwa Monogatari^ in forty volumes, which 
covers the period from 889 to 1093, ^^^ ^^ intended chiefly 
as a glorification of the rule of the Kwambaku or Regent 
Michinaga. The Oho-Kagami^ or Great Mirror^ is another 
work of this kind. Unfortunately, however, there is ob- 
servable a tendency for the historical works written in 
Japanese to become more romantic and poetical than in- 
structive. They subsequently degenerated into mere para- 
phrases of history, and in modern times resulted in the 
historical novel. For research, the only trustworthy rec- 
ords are the official histories in the Chinese language. 

There are two works which, although not written in the 
classical period, are characterized by the same qualities of 
style and language, and therefore deserve a short notice 
here. 

One of these is the Hojoki^ written about a. d. 1200, by 
a Buddhist hermit named Chomei. In it he describes his 
hut in a retired mountain spot a few miles from Kioto, 
with his manner of life and occupations. A much more 
important work is Kenko Boshi's (died 1350) Tsure- 
dzure-gusa. The Tsure-dzure-gusa is plainly inspired by 
Sei Shonagon's Makura Zoshi. It is a series of essays 



348 JAPAN 

and anecdotes something in the style of Selden's Table 
Talk, 

The classical literature of Japan has not yet received the 
attention which its importance deserves. With a very few 
exceptions, the translations of the works which compose it 
fail to do complete justice to their literary quality, or even 
to represent the meaning with sufficient accuracy. 



THEATRE 

MORTIMER MEMPES 

I ALWAYS agree with that man who said, " Let me 
make the nation's songs and I care not who frames 
her laws," or words to that effect, for, in my opinion, 
nothing so well indicates national character or so keenly 
accentuates the difference between individuals and nations 
as the way they spend their leisure hours ; and the theatres 
of Japan are thoroughly typical of the people's character. 
It would be utterly impossible for the Japanese to keep art 
out of their lives. It creeps into everything, and is as the 
very air they breathe. Art with them is not only a con- 
scious effort to achieve the beautiful, but also an instinctive 
expression of inherited taste. It beautifies their homes 
and pervades their gardens ; and perhaps one never realizes 
this all-dominating power more fully than when in a 
Japanese theatre, which is, invariably, a veritable temple of 
art. But here with us in the West it is different. We 
have no art, and our methods merely lead us to deception, 
while we do not begin to understand those few great truths 
which form the basis of Oriental philosophy, and without 
which perfection in the dramatic art is impossible. 

In Japan the scenic work of a play is handled by one 

349 



350 JAPAN 

man alone, and that man is the dramatic author, who is 
almost invariably a great artist. To him the stage is a 
huge canvas upon which he is to paint his picture, and of 
which each actor forms a component part. This picture of 
his has to be thought out in every detail ; he has to think of 
his figures in relation to his background, just as a Japanese 
artist when building a house or a temple takes into con- 
sideration the surrounding scenery, and even the trees and 
the hills, in order to form a complete picture, perfect in 
balance and in form. When a dramatic author places his 
drama upon the stage, he arranges the colour and setting 
of it in obedience to his ideas of fitness, which are partly 
intuitive and partly traditional. It is probably necessary 
that his background should be a monotone, or arranged in 
broad masses of colour, in order to balance the brilliancy 
of the action, and against which the moving figures are 
sharply defined. And it is only in Japan that you see such 
brilliant luminous effects on the stage, for the Japs alone 
seem to have the courage to handle very vivid colours in a 
masterly way — glorious sweeps of gold and of blue — vivid, 
positive colour. No low-toned plush curtains and what 
we call rich, sombre colour, with overdressed, shifted-calved 
flunkeys, stepping silently about on velvet carpets, shod in 
list slippers, and looking for all the world like a lot of 
burglars, only needing a couple of dark lanterns to com- 
plete their stealthy appearance. 

Then, there are no Morris-papered anterooms and cor- 
ridors in Japan, as we have here — sad bottlegreens and 



THEATRE 351 

browns leading to a stage that is still sadder in colour — 
only a sadness lit up by a fierce glare of electric light. 

The true artistic spirit is wanting in the West. We are 
too timid to deal in masses for effect, and we have such a 
craving for realism that we become simply technical imita- 
tors like the counterfeiters of banknotes. Our great and 
all-pervading idea is to cram as rnuch of what we call 
realism and detail into a scene as possible ; the richer the 
company, and the more money they have to handle, the 
more hopeless the work becomes, for the degradation of it 
is still more fully emphasized. 

The Japanese are not led away by this struggle to be 
realistic, and this is one of the chief reasons why the stage 
of Japan is so far ahead of our stage. If a horse is intro- 
duced into a scene he will be by no means a real horse, but 
a very wooden one, with wooden joints, just like a nursery 
rocking-horse ; yet this decorative animal will be certain to 
take its proper place in the composition of the picture. 
But when realism has its artistic value, the Japs will use it 
to the full. If the scene is to be the interior of a house, it 
will be an interior, complete in every detail down to the 
exquisite bowl of flowers which almost invariably forms the 
chief decoration of a Japanese room. But suppose they 
want a garden : they do not proceed, as we do, to take one 
special garden and copy it literally ; that garden has to be 
created and thought out to form a perfect whole ; even the 
lines of the tiny trees and the shape of the hills in the dis- 
tance have to be considered in relation to the figures of the 



352 JAPAN 

actors who are to tell their story there. This is true art. 
Then, when you go to the theatre in Japan, you are made 
to feel that you are actually living in the atmosphere of the 
play ; the body of the theatre and the stage are linked to- 
gether, and the spectator feels that he is contained in the 
picture itself, that he is looking on at a scene which is tak- 
ing place in real life just before his very eyes. And it is 
the great aim of every ambitious dramatic author to make 
you feel this. To gain this end, if the scene is situated by 
the seashore, he will cause the sea, which is represented by 
that decorative design called the wave pattern, to be swept 
right round the theatre, embracing both audience and stage 
and dragging you into the very heart of his picture. 

For this same reason, a Japanese theatre is always built 
with two broad passages, called Hanamichi (or flower- 
paths), leading through the audience to the stage, up which 
you can watch a Daimio and his gorgeous retinue sweep on 
his royal way to visit perhaps another Daimio whose house 
is represented on the stage. This is very dramatic, and 
greatly forwards the author's scheme of bringing you in 
touch with the stage. But we in our Western theatres 
need not trouble ourselves with all this, for we frame our 
scenes in a vulgar gilt frame ; we hem them in and cut 
them ofF from the rest of the house. When we go to a 
theatre here, we go to view a picture hung up on a wall, 
and generally a very foolish inartistic picture it is too. 
And even taking our stage from the point of view of a 
picture, it is wrong, for in a work of art the frame should 



THEATRE 353 

never have an independent value as an achievement, but be 
subordinate to, and part of, the whole. All idea of fram- 
ing the stage must be done away with ; else we are in dan- 
ger of going to the other extreme, as some artists have 
done, and cause our picture to overlap and spread itself 
upon the frame. 

Now, built as the Japanese theatres are, with their 
flower-paths leading from the stage, there is no fear of such 
a disaster ; yet Westerners who have never been to Japan, 
on hearing of the construction of a Japanese theatre, are 
rather inclined to conjure up to their fancies visions of the 
low comedian who springs through trap-doors, and of the 
clown who leaves the ring of the circus to seat himself be- 
tween two maiden ladies in the audience ; but if these peo- 
ple were to go to Japan and see a really fine production at 
a properly conducted theatre, such an idea would never 
occur to them at all. 

Here and there, however, the unthinking globe-trotter, 
with more or less the vulgar mind, will be inclined to laugh 
as he sees a richly-clothed actor sweep majestically 
through the audience to the stage ; he will point out the 
prompter who never attempts to conceal himself, and the 
little black-robed supers who career about the stage arranging 
dresses, slipping stools under actors, and bearing away any 
little article that they don't happen to want. " How funny 
and elementary it all is ! " they will remark ; but there is 
nothing elementary about it at all ; these little supers who 
appear to them so amusing are perfect little artists, and are 



354 JAPAN 

absolutely necessary to ensure the success of a scene. 
Suppose Danjuro, the greatest actor in Japan, appears upon 
the stage dressed in a most gorgeous costume, and takes up 
a position before a screen which he will probably have to 
retain for half an hour : these little people must be there 
to see that the sweep of his dress is correct in relation to 
the lines of the screen. The placing of this drapery is 
elaborately rehearsed by the supers, and when they step 
back from their work even the globe-trotter is bound to 
admit that the picture created by Danjuro and the screen is 
a perfectly beautiful one, and a picture which could not 
have been brought about by merely walking up and stop- 
ping short, or by the backward kick that a leading lady 
gives to her skirt. These little supers may go, come, and 
drift about on the stage ; they may slip props under the 
actors and illuminate their faces with torches; yet the re- 
fined Japanese gentleman (and he is always an artist) is 
utterly unconscious of their presence. They are dressed 
in black : therefore it would be considered as the height of 
vulgarity in him to see them. Indeed, the audience are in 
honour bound not to notice these people, and it would be 
deemed in their eyes just as vulgar for you to point out a 
super in the act of arranging a bit of drapery, as to enter 
a temple and smell the incense there. No Japanese ever 
smells incense : he is merely conscious of it. Incense is 
full of divine and beautiful suggestion ; but the moment 
you begin to vulgarize it by talking, or even thinking of its 
smell, all beauty and significance are destroyed, 



THEATRE 355 

Everything connected with the stage in Japan is reduced 
to a fine art : the actor's walk — the dignity of it ! — you 
would never see a man walk in the street as he would on 
the stage. And then the tone of voice, bearing, and atti- 
tude — everything about the man is changed. 



THE NEW JAPAN 

ARTHUR DIOSr 

ON the seventeenth of September, 1894, from noon 
to sunset, the thunder of great guns rolled over 
the waters of Korea Bay, between the Island of 
Hai-yang and the mouth of the Yalu River, proclaiming to 
an amazed world the birth of the New Far East. 

In that fierce sea-fight, by its consequences the most 
important naval action since Trafalgar, Japan had com- 
pletely broken China's maritime power. The hotly-con- 
tested battle between the fleets of the two great yellow 
peoples, using, for the first time in warfare, the latest 
death-dealing devices of the white men, had resulted in a 
victory for Japan so decisive that from that moment no 
doubt as to the ultimate issue of the struggle could arise in 
the minds of those who understood the modern science of 
war. 

The importance of the Yalu sea-fight was quickly appre- 
ciated throughout the world. It revealed suddenly, as if 
by magic, the existence of an entirely new, hitherto barely 
suspected, condition of affairs in Eastern Asia. That huge 
Chinese Empire, which the Western world, ever ready to 
mistake bigness for greatness, had credited with boundless 
stores of latent strength, was shown to be an inert mass of 

356 



THE NEW JAPAN 357 

corruption, feebly drifting towards disintegration, whilst 
Japan stood revealed in the full glare of a new light as a 
nation no longer in leading-strings, but capable of being, 
and fully determined to be, a dominant factor in Eastern 
Asia — a power to be reckoned with, in future, in any polit- 
ical combination affecting the countries which face the 
rising sun. Preconceived notions, deeply implanted in the 
minds of Western statesmen, were uprooted, popular mis- 
conceptions received a rude shock ; and, as the battle- 
smoke drifted away over the waves of the China Sea, the 
astonished eyes of Occidentals beheld the Old Far East 
sinking in the flood, along with the boasted naval power 
of China, and, in its stead, rising steadily from " the Edge 
of Asia," the New Far East came into view. 

For a quarter of a century the sun of New Japan had 
been steadily rising over the horizon, whilst China con- 
tinued to sink deeper and deeper into the slough of corrup- 
tion, losing one tributary state after another through the 
incompetence and venality of her officials, the inefficiency 
of her diplomatists, and the contemptible weakness of her 
forces. To most Occidentals the contrast presented by 
the two nations unfortunately failed to convey its lesson. 
In their eyes, and especially in those of British people, 
China still loomed mysterious, huge, possessed of vast 
latent power and of untold resources. It seemed impos- 
sible that such a large proportion of the human race should 
remain absolutely deaf to the voice of progress, perfectly 
blind to the advantages of modern civilization. The 



358 JAPAN 

slightest sign of movement in a forward direction, although 
it was chiefly aimed at the possession of modern arma- 
ments, was hailed by the West as an indication that China 
was really on the eve of her awakening. The wish was 
father to the thought, and much sympathy was wasted on 
what were erroneously held to be symptoms of China's 
resurrection. 

As for Japan, it was still, in the opinion of the great 
majority of Europeans and of Americans, what it had 
always been, — a pleasant land of beautiful scenery, bright 
with lovely flowers ; a country inhabited by an interesting 
race with charming gentle manners, imbued with delicate 
artistic taste, and showing, in recent times, a marvellous 
aptitude for assimilating Western civilization, often in a 
manner producing quaint, even grotesque results. In short, 
Japan was to the Western world, that strange medley of 
the beautiful and the comical described in the narratives of 
scores of travellers in the Land of the Rising Sun. 

Until the battle of Ping-yang (in Korean " Phyong- 
yang "), the first in which the army of New Japan proved 
its complete efficiency, and the naval victory oflF the mouth 
of the Yalu, testified to her attainment of her majority as 
a modern nation, the Western peoples had never taken 
Japan seriously. The wonderful intelligence and spirit of 
adaptability of the Japanese had long been recognized, they 
had been patted on the head and smilingly praised for their 
successful imitation, as it was thought to be — it was really 
adaptation — of certain phases of European civilization, and 




en 
O 

<: 
w 

E-» 



THE NEW JAPAN 359 

in some quarters, and those laying claim to be the best 
informed, they had been solemnly warned of their inherent 
weakness, of the futility of any attempt on their part to 
enter into serious rivalry with European Powers. The 
West, having delivered its praise and its homily, turned its 
attention to the lacquer and the carvings, the bronzes and 
the coloured prints of Old Japan, and, with a pitying smile, 
left the New to struggle through its political teething, its 
attempt at Parliamentary Government. 

A few months changed all this. The Risen Sun of 
Japan, shining on her victorious armies and fleet cast its 
rays into every diplomatic Chancellerie in Europe, and pro- 
duced in all of them, except amongst the ice-cool heads in 
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the banks of the Neva, 
a remarkable effect. A sort of " Japan sunstroke " affected 
the entire personnel^ not excepting even those who steered 
the various ships of state. Such a fluttering of diplomatic 
dovecotes, such a general " setting to partners," such an 
almost universal re-casting of parts in the great historical 
drama, had, in all probability, not occurred since those 
sultry days, twenty-five years before, when the Napoleonic 
Empire succumbed to the sledge-hammer blows of the 
Germans. 

The truth is that the struggle for which both the Em- 
pires had been preparing, each in its own characteristic 
way, for years, was inevitable. China had, long ago, de- 
termined to seek the first favourable opportunity of reduc- 
ing Japan, the " Upstart Nation of Dwarfs," as she called 



360 JAPAN 

her to that condition of vassalage Chinese tradition had as- 
signed as Japan's proper position. The Chinese official 
classes, blind votaries of stagnation, gloated over the disas- 
trous fate in store for " the Dwarfs " who had in their 
opinion, turned traitors to the Yellow Race, those " Mon- 
keys '* who struttled about in Western dress, and who had 
the audacity to prosper in their imitation of the ways of the 
hated " Western Foreign Devils." As far back as 1882, 
the famous Li Hung-Chang had memorialized the Throne, 
advising the postponement of the invasion of Japan, the 
plan for which the Emperor had " graciously ordered him 
to prepare " until the Chinese navy could be brought to a 
high condition of strength and efficiency, " meanwhile," 
wrote the wily old Viceroy, " carefully concealing our ob- 
ject " until a convenient opportunity of " bringing about a 
rupture with Japan." Whilst biding her time, China car- 
ried on, for years, without intermission, a war of needle- 
pricks agamst Japan, slighting, baffling, snubbing the Power 
which had set the whole Yellow Race the shockingly sub- 
versive example of reform and progress, and which had lit 
a torch the rays of which might some day shine across the 
sea and dazzle the hordes of sluggish Celestials. 

The knowledge of China's malevolent Intentions, the 
accumulated resentment of years — at various times re- 
pressed with the greatest difficulty, by wise statesmen 
awaiting the right moment for action — these w^ere, un- 
doubtedly, potent factors in causing Japan to draw the 
sword against China. Another strong incentive lay in the 



THE NEW JAPAN 361 

necessity for Japan, a thickly populated country, mountain- 
ous and narrow, of finding a ready market in China for the 
products of her rapidly-rising industries, that give employ- 
ment to those whom agriculture or the fisheries cannot 
support. The Treaty of Peace of Shimonoseki (1895) 
opened new ports in China to the trade of the victorious 
Japanese, but also, owing to the operation of the Most- 
Favoured-Nation Clause in the various treaties. with China, 
to the trade of the world — a fact too often ignored bv Oc- 
cidentals when considering the results of the war. 

Of the manifold influences which were at work to impel 
the Japanese towards the struggle, none was more impor- 
tant than the necessity, often painfully impressed on Jap- 
anese statesmen, of convincing the fiery spirits amongst 
the Shi-zoku^ and especially those of the great fighting clan 
of feudal times, the men of Satsuma, that the new civiliza- 
tion had not emasculated the race. The war conclusively 
proved to them, and to the thousands whose hearts still 
hankered, in secret, after the old order of things, that Wes- 
tern science and foreign ways had not, as they feared, di- 
minished the true Spirit of Old Japan. The old Tamato- 
Damashi-i burnt as brightly as ever in Japanese hearts. 
The Japanese sword was still keen, the Japanese arm still 
strong, the Japanese heart still fearless. All was well with 
Japan ; the new civilization had not tarnished her honour. 
It had added lustre to her glory. Henceforward the new 

1 Formerly called Samurai ; the Gentry who formed the governing and 
military class in Old Japan. 



362 JAPAN 

civilization would have no opponents, would cause no re- 
grets. 

The wise men who guided the destinies of Japan foresaw 
what a war, which they knew must be successful, would 
mean as regards their country's position in the world. 
With that quick sharp perception of what is insincere that 
is peculiarly their own, they had seen through the sham of 
Occidental international ethics. For thirty years the West 
had been urging the Japanese onward in their adaptation of 
Occidental civilization, ever replying to their claim to be 
treated as equals : " Not yet ! Go on building railways, 
erect more schools, establish new hospitals. Study, work, 
trade, become learned, peaceful, rich — in one word, a civ- 
ilized nation — and we will admit you into our midst on an 
equal footing." 

The Japanese took the advice to heart. They built 
railways in every direction, established a national educa- 
tional system second to none, opened hospitals that aroused 
the admiration of foreign medical men ; they studied, they 
worked, they traded ; the nation became well-educated, 
peaceful, and wonderfully prosperous. But all this was of 
no avail. Until Britain, to her everlasting honour, gave 
the others a noble lead by the Treaty Revision which ad- 
mitted Japan into the comity of nations as an equal, the 
Powers had continued to treat her like an interesting, clever 
child, not to be taken seriously for a moment. Japan went 
to war, she conquered by land and sea, and hey ! presto ! — 
the scene changed. The great, civilized Christian Powers 



THE NEW JAPAN 363 

stood in a line, bowing courteously to the victor and ex- 
claiming in unison : '' Here is a nation that has cruisers 
and guns, and torpedoes and long range rifles, and that 
knows how to use them so as to kill a great number of 
people with small loss to herself. Truly this is a great 
nation and one worthy of our respect ! " 

In a few months, " frivolous, superficial, grotesquely 
imitative, little Japan " had become " the predominant fac- 
tor in the Far East " — " a nation to be reckoned with in 
all future international combinations affecting Eastern 
Asia " — " a rising naval Power," and " the modern Jack 
the Giant-Killer." The statesmen and the warriors of 
Japan smiled grimly as they noted the complete success of 
their efforts to prove Japan a nation. They had rightly 
gauged the relative value of the triumphs of peace and 
those of war in the estimation of the great Powers of the 
West. Governments that had, in the past, treated Japan 
with scant courtesy, now seriously considered the question 
of an alliance with her. Other great Powers paid her the 
almost equally great compliment of looking upon her as a 
dangerous rival, and formed a monstrous, unnatural coali- 
tion for the purpose of coercing her. Friends and foes 
alike had begun to grasp the changed situation. The New 
Far East was born. 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 

E. S. 

JAPAN, or Nippon, consists of four large islands Honshiu 
(the mainland), Yezo, Kiushiu and Shikoku, and many 
small islands (said to comprise more than 4,223), the 
area being about 147,655 square miles and the population 
44^733^379- -^^ ^^95^ ^^^ Island of Formosa (about 
13,500 square miles, with a population of 2,640,309, chiefly- 
Chinese), and the Pescadores (eighty-five square miles with 
a population of 52,400), were ceded by China. The 
Kurile Islands have belonged to Japan since 1875 ; and in 
1876, the Luchu Islands were incorporated as the " Pre- 
fecture of Okinawa." The Empire of Japan consists of 
an area of 162,655 square miles, with a population of 
44,260,606 (22,329,925 men and 21,630,681 women). 

Tokio (formerly Yedo), is the capital and residence of 
the Mikado (population 1,507,642), and the two chief 
ports and centres of foreign trade are Yokohama and Kobe 
(populations respectively in 1898, 193,762 and 214,119). 
The population of the other important cities are: Osaka, 
1,311,909; Kioto, 351,461; Nagoya, 239,771 ; Hiroshima, 
114,231, and Nagasaki, 106,574. In 1898, ten other towns 
contained a population of between 50,000 and 100,000. 
The chief towns of the island Formosa are Tamsui, Tai- 

364 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 365 

nanfu and Anping. The almost inaccessible mountainous 
inlands are occupied by a primitive tribe of Malays. The 
Ainu, an uncivilized tribe that anciently occupied the greater 
part of Japan, still inhabit Yezo. The islands of the 
Japanese archipelago are volcanic, and disastrous earth- 
quakes are frequent, as are also tidal waves. There are no 
less than eighteen active summits ; but the chief peak 
Fuji-san, or Fujiyama (12,370 feet), Japan's highest and 
most sacred mountain, has been dormant since 1707. As 
the country is very mountainous, the area available for 
cultivation does not exceed one-sixth of the whole, but the 
soil is productive and agriculture is extensively carried on, 
the chief products being rice, wheat and other cereals, 
and the potato, tea-plant and tobacco. The mineral 
products include gold (discovered in 1899), silver, copper, 
iron, sulphur, coal, agate, cornelian and rock-crystal. The 
vegetable products include the camphor-tree, the lacquer- 
tree, the vegetable wax-tree and the paper mulberry. The 
principal timber trees are the Cryptomeria japonica, Pinus 
Massoniana, and Zelkowa Keaki. The chief products of 
Formosa are rice, sugar, tea, coal and camphor. The 
coasts, which have very fine harbours, abound in fish. 

Japan claims to possess a written history of 2,500 years 
and that the present Mikado, Mutsu Hito (the I2ist of his 
race), is a direct descendant of the Emperor Jimmu, who 
founded the present dynasty in 660 B. c, which, after a 
short war in 1868, overthrew the Shogun who had practi- 
cally ruled the country since the Twelfth Century. The 



366 JAPAN 

Mikado (Honourable Gate) has been absolute sovereign of 
Japan ever since that date. Mutsu Hito, the Mikado of 
Japan, vi^as born at Kioto, Nov. 3, 1852. He succeeded 
his father, Komei Tenno, in 1867, and in 1869 married 
the Princess Haruko, daughter of Prince Ichijo. His chil- 
dren are Prince Yoshihito (born 1879, proclaimed Crown 
Prince in 1889, and married to Princess Sadako in 1900), 
and four Princesses. Under his rule Japan has entered 
upon an era of phenomenal prosperity and her quick ab- 
sorption of Western ideas and methods has placed her 
among the Pow^ers. 

Japan vi^as an absolute monarchy until 1889, vi^hen the 
Mikado granted a nevt^ constitution to the people by which 
the Emperor is head and sovereign of the people, but exer- 
cises his executive powers with the advice of Cabinet Min- 
isters, who are appointed by himself. He exercises the 
legislative power with the aid of the Imperial Diet, com- 
posed of a House of Peers (about 300 in number) and a 
House of Representatives (375 members). The Imperial 
Diet must be assembled once a year. It has control over 
the finances. The present Cabinet is as follows : Field 
Marshall Viscount Taro Katsura, Prime Minister ; Baron 
Jutaro Komura, Foreign Affairs ; Baron Tosuke Hirata, 
Agriculture and Commerce ; Baron Tadakatsu Utsumi, 
Interior; Baron Arasuke Sone, Finance; Major-General 
Masatake Terauchi, War ; Admiral Baron Gombei Ya- 
mamoto, Marine ; Baron Keigo Kiyoura, Justice ; Baron 
Dairoku Kikuchi, Education ; Viscount Akimasa Yoshi- 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 367 

kawa, Communications ; and Major-General Viscount 
Tanaka, Imperial Household. 

The first national Parliament met in 1890. The new 
aristocracy consists of five grades corresponding to the 
European titles of Prince, Marquis, Count, Viscount and 
Baron. The feudal lords retain their social position, but 
have lost all powers of government. The Emperor has 
supreme command of the army and navy. In gratitude for 
his wise direction of the naval and military operations 
against China in 1898, the Diet voted the imperial estates 
20,000,000 yen of the indemnity obtained through the vic- 
tories. 

The existing military regulations date from 1883. The 
entire army is organized on the basis of conscription, all 
male Japanese subjects from the ages of seventeen to forty 
are subject to service as follows : three years in the stand- 
ing army, four years in the standing army reserve, and five 
years in the territorial army ; while the national army cor- 
responding to the European Landsturm, is another reserve. 
In 1901— 2, the military budget amounted to 50,111,000 yen 
and provided for thirteen divisions, comprising the Im- 
perial Guard, twenty-six infantry brigades, seventeen regi- 
ments of cavalry, nineteen regiments of artillery, thirteen 
battalions of pioneers, thirteen battalions of train, one rail- 
way and one telegraph battalion. Besides these, there are 
three regiments of coast and two battalions of foot artillery 
and the Yezo Brigade consisting of infantry, cavalry, ar- 
tillery, and pioneers. The Army of the Second Line com- 



368 JAPAN 

prises thirty-six battalions of infantry, as well as cavalry, 
pioneers and other troops. The military schools and acad- 
emies are of the best type and the army is efficiently drilled. 
The men are armed with the 256 inch rifle, a Japanese in- 
vention. In 1901-2, the peace strength was reported to be 
143,649 (8,116 officers) and the war strength (not includ- 
ing all the reserves), 392,220 with 1,098 guns (171 bat- 
talions, forty-three squadrons and seventy-one batteries). 
According to the St. Petersburg Gazette (Nov. 1902) the 
force was 509,960. 

The Japanese navy is one of the most important de- 
velopments in the politics of the Far East. The Minister 
of the Navy has his department of command in Tokio. 
The chief of the naval command is appointed from the list 
of admirals. In 1902, there were two admirals, nine vice- 
admirals, twenty-five rear-admirals, sixty-five captains, 119 
commanders, 167 lieutenant-commanders, 220 lieutenants, 
.305 sub-lieutenants as well as engineers, medical officers, 
etc. The sailors numbered 31,688. The total was 
35^355 officers and men. The coast is divided into five 
maritime districts, the headquarters being at Yokosuka, 
Kure, Sasebo, Maizuru and Muroran (the last is now being 
established). Japan has a large ship-building programme, 
which is said to include four battleships from England and 
six first-class cruisers from England, France and Germany. 
She is building her own protected cruisers and destroyers 
and founding armour factories by which means she will 
soon be enabled to build her battleships also. Her newest 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 369 

battleships are the Fuji, Yashima, Shikishima, Asahi, 
Hatsuse and Mikasa. Her most efficient armoured cruis- 
ers are Asama, Azuma, Yakumo, Idzumo, Iwate and 
Tokivva. She also owns the battleship Chin-Yen captured 
from China j and a large and efficient flotilla of torpedo 
boat destroyers, which is constantly increasing. The pro- 
posed sum for strengthening the navy and to be extended 
over a period of eleven years (beginning March 31, 1904), 
is 99,860,305 yen. Some of this provides for the estab- 
lishment of an armour-plate making plant at Kure. 

In 1903, the mercantile marine of registered ships above 
100 tons were 555 steamers of 563,389 gross tons, and 
1,241 sailing vessels of 171,024 gross tons. 

Commerce with foreign nations is carried on through 
the open ports of Yokohama, Kobe, Osaka, Nagasaki, 
Hakodate, Niigata and twenty special export ports. The 
chief exports are rice, silk, tea, fish, copper, matches, coal, 
camphor, straw-plaits, marine products, cotton yarn and 
mats for floor. The principal imports are machinery from 
Europe and the United States of America, kerosene oil 
from the latter; raw cotton from China and the United 
States of America, metals, woollens, drugs, locomotives, 
sugar, beans, peas, pulse, and rice. In 1901, the imports 
of bullion and specie were 10,960,750 yen and the exports 
14,049,099 yen. 

The chief industries of the country are factories for silk 
and cotton and cotton yarn, paper, glass, matches, porce- 
lain, japanned ware, as well as bronze and shipbuilding. 



370 JAPAN 

In the province of Echigo, the petroleum industry is 
being developed ; at Wakamatsu, a Government foundry is 
engaged in pig-iron, Siemens' steel, and rails and plates, and 
at Nagasaki, shipbuilding is conducted by skilled European 
workmen with the newest machinery on a large scale. 
The camphor industry is of extreme value. In 189 1, no 
less than 2,508,361 persons were engaged in fishing. In 
1900, the fish industry yielded : dried fish, 12,783,934 yen; 
salt fish, 2,267,512 yen; fish manure, 9,662,768 yen; fish 
oil, 399,648 yen ; and sea-weed, 2,008,604 7^"- 

In 1901, of the total foreign ships entering Japanese 
ports 1,644 of 4,080,583 tons were British ; 385 of 
1,192,153 tons, German; 284 of 455,243 tons, Russian; 
188 of 240,906 tons, Norwegian; 175 of 404,724 tons, 
American; and 154 of 303,690 tons, French. 

The Japanese have shown great energy in developing 
their railway lines. 

In 1900, there were 2, 802 miles of private railway and 
833 miles of Government. The latter owns the Tokaido, 
Shinano and Echigo as well as the Oshiu and Dewa lines 
(661 miles). Progress is being made on the East Coast 
route. A railway was opened in Formosa in 1900 from 
Takao to Tainan (forty miles), and a Japanese line is also 
being built in Korea from Fusan to Seoul. In the budget 
of 190 1-2, the net profit on these lines was estimated at 
;^746,977. In 1899, there were 1,562 miles of telephone. 

In 1897, ^^^ currency was placed upon a gold standard, 
the unit of value is 0.75 grammes of pure gold and is 



PRESENT CONDITIONS 371 

called the yen which is not coined, the smallest gold coin 
being the 5-yen piece. The old silver 5-sen piece and 
copper 2, I and y^ sen pieces are used as formerly. The 
sen is the hundredth part of a yen and the rin is the tenth 
part of a sen. In 190 1 the local exchange value of the 
yen was 2s o^d. The paper money in circulation is 
Nippon Ginko notes, or notes of the Bank of Japan, ex- 
changeable for gold on presentation, amounted on April i, 
1902, to 187,194,336 yen. The revenue for 1902-3 
amounted to 273,630,836 yen and the expenditure, 
270,424,495 yen. 

The constitution permits freedom of religious belief and 
practice. There is no state religion nor state support, 
although the state and local authorities support many 
shrines. In 1900, there were 196,358 of these shrines 
dedicated to the eminent ancestors of the Imperial House 
and meritorious subjects. The chief forms of religion are 
Shintoism (with twelve sects) and Buddhism (with twelve 
sects and thirty-two creeds). In 1900, there were 89,507 
Shinto priests and 687 students, while there were 71,951 
Buddhist temples, 111,264 bonzes, and 9,276 students. 
Moreover there were 1,035 churches and preaching stations 
of the Roman Catholic, Greek, and Protestant Churches. 

The two Universities are Tokio Imperial University 
and Kioto Imperial University. Both are supported by 
the Government. Elementary education is compulsory. 
There are about 27,000 elementary schools with more than 
4,300,000 pupils. Technical schools are rapidly increas- 



372 JAPAN 

ing. Formosa has a special educational system. In 1900, 
Japan had forty-three libraries with 525,971 volumes. In 
that year 944 periodicals and newspapers and 18,281 books 
were published. 

THE END. 



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